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WHOLE TRUTH 

ABOUT MEXICO 

PRESIDENT WILSON'S 
RESPONSIBILITY 



BY 

FRANCISCO BULNES 



Authorized Translation by 
DORA SCOTT 



M. BULNES BOOK COMPANY 

8io BROADWAY 

NEW YORK 

1916 



F 



.Bf3 




Copyright, 1916, bt IvIario M, Bulnes 



\_Prlnted in the United States of America] 



I: 

SEP 26 1916 



rf)aA437832 



AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY 

Francisco Bulnes, Civil and Mining Engineer, Chemist 
and Bacteriologist; Representative and Senator in the Mex- 
ican Congress for thirty years; Chairman at various times 
of the Senate and the House of Representatives; Member 
of the Commission that drew up the first plan of the Bank- 
ing Laws; Member of the Commission that drew up the 
Mining Code in 1884, and the reform of the same in 1892; 
Member of the Public Credit Commission; Author of the 
Laws for the regulation of the Public Debt in 1886; 
Chairman of the Commission appointed to report upon the 
best means to counteract the effects of the depreciation of 
silver; Member of the Monetary Commission in 1894; 
Professor of Mathematics at the National Preparatory 
School; Professor of Hydrography, Calculus and Political 
Economy at the National School of Engineers; Member of 
the Geographical and Statistical Society; Chairman on 
various occasions of the Commissions representing the De- 
partments of the Treasury, Fomento and Communication 
and Public Works in Congress; Editor-in-Chief of La 
Libertad; Editor of El Siglo XX, Mexico Financiero and 
La Prensa; Author of A gricultura, Jornales y Miserias, El 
Porvenir de las Naciones Latino Americanas; Treatises on 
Constitutional Law, Metallurgy and Fermentation, and the 
following critical historical works, Las Grandes Mentiras 
de Nuestra Historia, El Verdadero Juarez, Juarez y la 
Revolucion de Reforma, La Guerra de Independencia. 



PREFACE 

The Mexican revolution has a threefold aspect at present: 
that of a great social drama; of a weighty international 
problem, and of a terrible socialistic experience for a people, 
whose starved, infuriated and overwrought element ob- 
tained a complete victory over the representative element in 
August, 1 914. 

Passion is the mainspring of every drama; and every 
great, international political problem sets the passion of 
patriotism in motion, as well as the passion to secure well- 
being in the future at the expense of the present. Socialism 
in its practical application is a compelling force, destructive 
of traditional civilization, especially when it champions the 
cause of the poor in their struggle against the rich. 

The "Mexican case" has become the slogan of the two 
American political parties now warring for supremacy in 
the coming elections; and it may be said to represent the 
clash of two great interests, drowned in a torrent of deaf- 
ening and sinister language. The object of this book is 
to arrive at the truth, guided by one master passion, the 
passion for justice. It is capable of inspiring terror, of 
animating by hope, of ennobling by patriotism, of enlighten- 
ing by faith, of illuminating moral abysses by the power of 
its own sovereign force. My task is by no means an easy 
one, as it is very difficult to treat a question quite dispas- 
sionately, when the heart appeals against the judgment of 
the head. 

My attitude is not one of enmity toward the Mexican 
revolution. Study has taught me what all men who have 



viii PREFACE 

studied the question scientifically known; that is, that every 
genuine revolution is a benefit to humanity in general, as 
well as to the people themselves, if they can carry it to 
a successful issue. But when the people who revolt lack the 
necessary reactionary power to reconstruct their country, 
they perish as a nation, or cease to exist as a social body. 
I am not an enemy of the revolution, but I do look with 
horror upon its progress, because Mexico is my native land 
and from the final, supreme test of the revolution may result 
the loss of its independence, or the extermination of the 
race, ground to dust under the merciless hoofs of anarchy. 

To every reader of this book I profEer the assurance of 
absolute candor, and the exposition of the truth, in so far as 
it is humanly possible to state it. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 



PART FIRST 



SOME PRESIDENTIAL FACTS CONCERNING 
SOCIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 



I. President Wilson's Attempt to Establish 

Liberty in Mexico a Costly Fiasco . i 

II. The Great Fiasco of the Mexican Revo- 
lutionists and President Wilson in 
the Agrarian Question .... 36 



PART SECOND 

THE TRUTH CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF 
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION AND ITS 
DEVELOPMENTS UP TO THE TIME OF 
PRESIDENT WILSON'S INTERVENTION 

L A Boxer Revolution Protected by the 

United States Government . . .103 

II. The Moral Upheavals of the Revolution 132 

III. Maderism 152 



X CONTENTS 

PART THIRD 

THE POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL INDICT- 
MENT OF PRESIDENT WILSON IN THE 
MEXICAN CASE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The First Installment of Lies Accepted 

BY President Wilson . . . .189 

II. President Wilson and First Chief Car- 

RANZA . . . ' 241 

III. The Collapse of President Wilson's Mex- 
ican Policy 281 



PART FOUR 

MEXICO'S PROBABLE CONDITION IN THE 
IMMEDIATE FUTURE 

I. The Magnitude of the Disaster . . 307 
II. The Collapse of Carrancism . . . 334 

III. Final Conclusions: President Wilson's 

Latest Serious Errors .... 360 

IV. Armed Intervention Begins . . . -370 



PART FIRST 

SOME ESSENTIAL FACTS CONCERNING 
SOCIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 



CHAPTER I 

PRESIDENT WILSON'S ATTEMPT TO ESTAB- 
LISH LIBERTY IN MEXICO A COSTLY 
FIASCO 

THE PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE OF DECEMBER 7, I915 

THE attentive perusal of President Wilson's message, 
read before the assembled Houses of Congress on 
December 7, 1915, produces a chilling sense of 
disappointment, inasmuch as that notable document contains 
nothing bearing upon Mexico which in the slightest degree 
meets the anxious expectations of the millions of individuals 
who, from motives noble or otherwise, watch from a dis- 
tance the development of the terrible and sanguinary drama 
now being enacted there. In this drama, the plot of which 
he has never understood. President Wilson has essayed to 
figure as one of the principal actors. 

It does, however, reveal with unmistakable clearness that 
President Wilson's dreams of an humanitarian apostolate 
have been shaken, not to say dissipated, by the rude shocks 
of savage and criminal realities. When an intelligent man, 
a man of character, of great civic weight — a man who lays 
claim to political discernment verging on mathematical pre- 
cision, as does Mr, Wilson, is guilty of glaring contradic- 
tions when addressing himself to the world — for the world 
listens when the President of the United States speaks to 
tlie American people — it is because the spirit of the exalted 
apostle has been crushed by the annihilating force of tragic 
events which cannot be denied, disguised, dissimulated or 
justified. 

President Wilson tells us that the troubled Republic of 



2 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Mexico has, "in the radical but necessary process," been 
able to count upon but few sympathizing elements outside 
its own boundaries. As a scholarly man, Mr. Wilson can- 
not ignore the fact that without exception every revolution 
rendered necessary by circumstances is, has been and ever 
will be, beneficial for the people who engendered it, and for 
humanity in general. If the Mexican revolution was a neces- 
sity, there should be no hesitation or vacillation in stating 
that its authors have conferred great benefits upon Mexico; 
whereas Mr. Wilson has stated, in the aforesaid message, 
with strange disregard for exactness, policy and ethics: 
"Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course wc have 
pursued remains to be seen." This course has been a policy 
of blind and decided championship of the cause of the Mex- 
ican revolutionists. Is there, then, no contradiction in de- 
claring that the Mexican revolution has been a necessity, 
and in expressing doubt as to whether or not in protecting 
this revolution a benefit has or has not been conferred upon 
Mexico ? 

President Wilson's words do not ring true. The con- 
sciousness of the Latin-American nations ought to be stirred 
by the self-evident fact that the President of the United 
States seems completely to have changed his personality, to 
possess to-day an identity which seems to have forgotten that 
of yesterday, or shall wc say that so great a personage has 
lost sight of the fact that his exalted position binds him in 
loyalty to words once spoken. "All the governments of 
America stand," says President Wilson, "so far as we are 
concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality and unques- 
tioned independence." It must have been the other Wilson 
then who addressed to the independent Mexican Govern- 
ment under General Huerta, through his personal repre- 
sentative, Mr. Lind, the note in which the President of 
the United States, in a form that might fittingly be assumed 
toward the Governors of Porto Rico or the Philippines, de- 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 3 

mands that the Mexican Government comply immediately 
with the following orders: 

'Tirst — Complete cessation of hostilities; that is, an im- 
mediate peace, or at least a truce, in Mexico. 

"Second — That President Huerta resign in favor of a 
President ad interim. 

"Third — The fixing of an early date for the presidential 
elections. 

"Fourth — That General Huerta should not be a candi- 
date for the presidency." 

In an interview granted to a representative of The Sat- 
urday Evening Post, Mr. Wilson made the following state- 
ment: "My ideal is an orderly and righteous government in 
Mexico ; but my passion is for the submerged eighty-five per 
cent of the people of the Republic, who are now struggling 
toward liberty." It is difficult to understand how it is pos- 
sible to conceive that justice is being shown to a people 
struggling toward liberty — a people which believes that this 
liberty can exist only under an orderly and righteous gov- 
ernment emanating from its sovereign will — by the assump- 
tion on the part of the President of the United States that 
he possesses the right to interfere and establish an orderly 
and righteous government in Mexico; and if this policy of 
the White House is not set forth as based upon this right 
or power, it must be looked upon as a barefaced act of ag- 
gression against the independence and sovereign rights of 
the Mexican people. 

In the same interview Mr. Wilson also stated : "Second — 
No personal aggrandizement by American investors or ad- 
venturers or capitalists, or exploitation of that country, will 
be permitted. Legitimate business interests that seek to de- 
velop rather than exploit will be encouraged." Mr. Wilson 
must be confusing Mexico with Porto Rico or the Philip- 
pines. Does he not know that the Mexican people possess 
the sovereign right even to allow themselves to be robbed by 



4 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the North American capitalists, or those of any other nation, 
and that they cannot permit the President of the United 
States to acquire the power to revise all the legislative acts 
of the Mexican Government, and to dissolve w^ith inexorable 
imperial veto the laws, decrees and resolutions of this Gov- 
ernment, even though the White House affirm that it has 
the power to exercise the rights of tutelage over eighty-five 
per cent of the Mexican people? 

Having noted some of the contradictions that the Presi- 
dent of the United States has permitted himself to be guilty 
of in regard to the "Mexican Case," it may be well to con- 
tinue the analysis until one essential fact is satisfactorily ex- 
plained and settled. If the Mexican revolution was a neces- 
sity, then it is an imperative duty to fix beyond the shadow 
of a doubt for whom the necessity existed. For Mexico? 
For the United States? For Europe? For humanity in 
general? And if this revolution was not a necessity, upon 
whom must the verdict of history and contemporaneous pub- 
lic opinion fix the guilt of high treason against humanity, 
and against the inalienable obligations that rest upon the 
chief executive of a nation? 

PRESIDENT WILSON SETS HISTORY ASIDE 

In the interview already spoken of, published in The Sat- 
urday Evening Post, the writer tells us that the President 
"hit the desk with that clenched fist," and said, " 'I chal- 
lenge you to cite to me an instance in all the history of the 
world where liberty was handed down from above! Lib- 
erty always is attained by the forces working below, under- 
neath, by the great movement of the people. That, leav- 
ened by the sense of wrong and oppression and injustice, by 
the ferment of human rights to be attained, brings freedom.' " 

I take up the gauntlet. I accept President Wilson's chal- 
lenge to give him a single instance in history where liberty 
has been "handed down from above." 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 5 

The Roman liberties were the work of an assemblage of 
patricians emanating from an aristocracy which counted 
soldiers, landed proprietors and jurists in its ranks. Almost 
everything in the patriotic history of Rome to which we 
look up to and admire — the creation of its civil laws, its 
legislative work, its recognition of the rights of the people 
and even of the slaves — was "handed down from above." 
Who would attribute to the "forces working below" the 
glories of Senatorial Rome's golden era? The triumph of 
the masses produced three hundred years of Caesarism. 

The famous Spanish liberties declared, sustained and elu- 
cidated by such far-famed political monuments as the Cortes, 
the Fueros, the Justicia de Aragon and the Church — recog- 
nized as a sovereign power within the State — were not the 
creations of the half-clothed denizens of the sub-stratum of 
humanity, but of the Infantes of Spain, steeped as they were 
in the spirit of feudalism ; of the Ricos-homes, crowned with 
the dignity of free men; of the prelates who, claiming the 
prerogatives granted them by the Church, imposed their 
authority upon the kings to curb their despotism. On the 
other hand, from the heart of the Spanish people — the forces 
working below — sprang their admiration for militarism, 
their veneration for the arquebus and cutlass, and that ideal 
of the subjugation and transformation of a people by con- 
quest, a conquest that left the weaker vassal, beaten and 
crushed, but nevertheless glorying to live subject to her 
overbearing lord, the military power. The Spanish populace 
applauded the destruction of the ancient liberties implanted 
by the grandees, although Inevitably and In great measure 
they were their own, and reverted with their former blind 
and fervid devotion to their king and their God. 

It Is readily granted by all moderately well-educated 
people, and by every Anglo-Saxon acquainted with this his- 
tory of his national life, that the origin of the English lib- 
erties — adopted In more or less modified form by all civ- 



6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ilized nations — is to be found in the Magna Charta of King 
John, a work that cannot be traced to the "forces working 
below," as it was forced upon this monarch by none other 
than the English barons. The other two great legislative 
monuments which incorporate the liberties of the English 
people are the Bill of Rights and the Petition of Rights, 
both emanating from the opulent industrial element and the 
aristocracy, still wedded to feudal ideas of liberty. It was 
not until 1832, when the first important reforms in the 
electoral laws were effected, that the English people were 
accorded a voice in the affairs of the nation, and by 1832 
the ancient and celebrated English liberties had been per- 
fected and completed, nothing in their composition having 
emanated from "the forces working below," alone endowed, 
according to President Wilson, with a veritable liberty- 
creating potency. 

The great French Revolution, initiated in 1789, is per- 
haps the most convincing example of the failure of the masses, 
not only to create the ideal liberal state, but adequately to 
understand and practice true liberty. Whatever of good 
survived the ravages of this great national struggle did not 
come from the political forces that brought it into being. 
The salient features of t'his movement were the revoking of 
the privileges of the Crown, of the nobility, of the clergy, 
of the judiciary, and this revocation was decreed after being 
learnedly and brilliantly discussed by the Constituent As- 
sembly. The sweeping financial, legislative and adminis- 
trative reform.s that modified the ancient regime were the 
work of the Assembly of 1791. But no sooner had the sover- 
eign power passed into the hands of the people, than there 
appeared on the horizon the most frightful tyrannical ma- 
chine the world has ever known, the National Conven- 
tion, that servile instrument of the great crimes and in- 
credible follies of the Reign of Terror, What was the out- 
come of all this? The terror produced by the will of the 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 7 

people permeated all ranks and classes — the great, the 
middle class, the lowly, the revolutionists, and even the 
terrorists. The people themselves ended by flinging aside 
their sovereign rights, seeking in Napoleon I and Louis 
XVIII agents who would restore to them, at least in part, 
their ancient institutions. These they now realized to be a 
necessity to their well-being, moulded as they had been by 
the traditions of the past which the revolution had sought 
to obliterate, forgetful that in the life of a people the past, 
the present and the embryonic future are inseparably united. 
The great French Revolution, launched in the name of 
liberty, and for the attainment of liberty, succeeded in the 
end in arousing in the minds of the people a veritable panic 
at the mere mention of their sovereign rights, and a sense of 
loathing for the very name of liberty itself. The nineteenth 
century apostles of liberty did not dare to raise their stand- 
ard in France until 1830, and that revolution was not at 
once extinguished because the wealthy bourgeoisie stepped 
in and snatched the reins from the hands of the socialist 
propagandists. This liberal regime was sustained by the 
industrial world, supported by that section of the aristocracy 
which preferred this kind of liberalism to being the victim 
of the sovereign will of the masses. The Revolution of 1848 
restored the people to power, but when the attempt was 
made to put into practice the most absurd socialist doc- 
trines, a reaction set in, upheld by those who, although lov- 
ing liberty, preferred the despotism of a Caesar to being 
trampled upon by the rabble. From the offscourings of the 
Second Empire rose that volcanic eruption known as the 
Paris Commune, which threatened to engulf the French 
nation. As though to nullify this sinister manifestation of 
the rule of the people there came forth the order and liberty 
of the conservative republic, in which all Frenchmen united, 
wishing to save their nation from the catastrophies to which 
it had been exposed by the rule of the people. The French 



8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Republic has developed gradually into a radical-socialist re- 
public, bearing in its womb the pulsing monster of doctrinal 
socialism and empirical anarchism. 

Why is the United States an exception to the rule which 
dominates in Latin countries of incompatibility between lib- 
erty and democracy? 

From the first, while America was still an English colony, 
it understood, practised and was gradually trained in the 
English ideal, and when it achieved its independence it 
came forth a really democratic people, because it possessed 
the real and fundamental condition of democracy, an equal — 
or almost equal — social condition among its citizens. Like 
conditions prevail in Switzerland, where the proprietary 
class is in the majority, and so long as this unusual condi- 
tion obtains, liberty and democracy can exist together, be- 
cause the soul of democracy is equality. But from the mo- 
ment that the proletarian element predominates, liberty has 
but a small chance. Moreover, in the Anglo-Saxon race 
there is faith in individualism, born of the results achieved 
by the common people in England, where the working-man 
commands the highest day wage in Europe, and in the 
United States, where he commands the highest in the world. 
That great Anglo-Saxon faith in liberty, due to the triumph 
of its efforts, also owes its origin to the economic elements 
which the Anglo-Saxon race has manipulated so as to create 
for its common people a situation superior to that of any 
other people of the world. 

If President Wilson will examine the nature of liberty 
as exemplified by its evolution in different countries, he will 
find that the truly protective regime has always been built 
up by the ari?,tocracy, supported by the doctrine of divine 
right, the right of arms and the right of the landowner; 
that the liberty which has been the outgrowth of what is 
commonly termed the "rights of man," has sprung from the 
industrial world, directed by the brains of capital, combined 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 9 

with the old aristocratic forces which prefer to yield rather 
than to be annihilated; that Socialism is the ideal of the 
working-man of to-day, who attributes all his misfortunes 
precisely to this kind of liberty, as the creator of stupendous 
social inequalities, and who sees in the capitalist only a hugh 
crushing machine bent upon pulverizing him into atoms. 
Outside of the United States and England the working-man 
is not emancipated from the traditions of the past; he is a 
socialist or, what amounts to the same, an avowed enemy of 
liberty. And even in the United States there now exists a 
socialist party whose existence is no longer ignored, and 
whose unwonted demonstrations from time to time have 
caused the individual American to ask himself what all this 
may portend. In anarchy may be found the real offspring 
of the "forces working below," the real domain of the des- 
perate, the cunning, of those who can live only when steeped 
in hate and who, believing that all social reforms proposed 
with a view to making the life of the working-man happy — 
with all his reasonable wants gratified — must necessarily 
fail, have resolved to do everything in their power to de- 
stroy human society. 

LIBERTY AND ORGANIC SERVILITY 

President Wilson resolved to implant liberty in Mexico: 
first, without right, later, without reason, and still later, 
without acquainting himself with the nature and characteris- 
tics of the people upon whom he wished to bestow that lib- 
erty which he himself says "is often a fierce and intractable 
thing." 

Mexico's economic resources may be summed up as fol- 
lows: 

Total annual agricultural production, 350,000,000 pesos.^ 

This agricultural life of the nation is extensive, carried 

1 The value of the Mexican silver peso was approximately fifty 
cents gold. 



lo WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

on by a population scattered over a vast area, without na- 
tional unification or equal civilization, of diverse races and 
languages; one only in illiteracy, silence, barbaric trend of 
thought, hatred of the white race and perhaps suffering, al- 
though their misfortunes are by no means equal. 

The annual industrial production of Mexico in 1909 was: 

Sugar and the manufacture of liquors from 

sugar-cane, maguey and grains 30,000,000 pesos 

Tobacco 15,000,000 

Cotton, jute and woolen materials 63,000,000 

National railways 80,000,000 

Street railways 1 1,000,000 

Electric lighting, public and private, and motor 

power 34,000,000 

Soap and paper 3,000,000 

Annual production of silver 75,000,000 

Annual production of gold 50,000,000 

Annual production of copper 32,000,000 

Annual production of iron 12,000,000 

Annual production of lead 4,000,000 

Annual production of zinc, antimony and tin... 3,000,000 

Annual production of coal 12,000,000 

Annual production of petroleum 30,000,000 



Total 454,000,000 pesos 

The statistical table given above represents an average 
during five years of General Porfirio Diaz's dictatorship, 
hence the monetary unit used to compute this annual pro- 
duction is not paper currency but the silver peso, valued at 
the rating of the monetary standard of 1905, averaging, 
therefore, two pesos to the American dollar. Consequently, 
computed on this basis and classified under the two head- 
ings of agriculture and industries, our production, previous 
to the saving revolution of the much-lauded Francisco I. 
Madero, was: 

Total annual agricultural production $175,000,000.00 

Total annual industrial production 227,000,000.00 

Apparently the Mexican nation possessed the necessary 
elements to establish a regime of libert}^ emanating not from 
the civilizing forces that work from below, which have so 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO ii 

captivated Mr. Wilson's imagination, but to the antagonism 
existing between two forces, the aristocratic agrarian and the 
industrial, controlled by capitalist sovereignty. Liberty is 
born of and nourished by the antagonism created by tyran- 
nical social forces which in the political world war upon 
each other, or unite to produce advantageous results for the 
people, whose sympathies are always with these social forces. 
Liberty, then, results from the peaceful impact of tyrannical 
forces within the limits of the community they pretend to 
govern. 

Ostensibly Mexico should enjoy a sound industrial regime, 
but the conclusion to be arrived at after carefully consider- 
ing the true aspect of the question will unavoidably lead to 
the most intense disappointment. 

SOCIAL ELEMENTS THAT DO NOT MAKE FOR LIBERTY 

Mexico's import trade — amounting to $150,000,000 at 
the time to which I refer — as also her internal trade, were 
almost exclusively in the hands of foreigners or foreign en- 
terprises, whose stockholders and boards of directors were 
in foreign countries. The Mexican Constitution denies po- 
litical rights to foreigners and does not permit foreign socie- 
ties or companies to ban together for political purposes. The 
result of this measure was to nullify almost totally any bene- 
fit that might accrue to politics from foreign capital circu- 
lating in Mexico. Nevertheless, foreigners could indirectly, 
through lawyers protecting their interests and representing 
them before the Government and the people, mix in political 
affairs for their own benefit and that of the country. There 
was, however, no foreigner in Mexico so unsophisticated as 
to believe that the Mexican people were fit for liberty, what- 
ever might be the stable form of government to which they 
might incline. Englishmen, Frenchmen, Italians, Japanese, 
Americans, all those, in fact, possessed of common sense, have 
always ridiculed our burlesque democracies and condemned 



12 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the crimes for which they are responsible. The foreigner in 
Mexico who believes in our liberalism must be either lacking 
in sense or devoid of veracity. 

The foreign element, even before the revolution of 1910, 
and before and during the dictatorship of General Diaz, was 
convinced that Mexico's best interests would be served by an 
iron hand, backed by an intelligent, upright, tolerant and, in 
so far as was possible, honest spirit. Influenced by this con- 
viction all foreigners living in Mexico, or having money in- 
vested in the country, have always supported every dictator- 
ship that in their estimation appeared competent or, under 
the circumstances, the least objectionable. One of their in- 
direct methods of upholding the dictatorship was not to em- 
ploy Mexicans who mixed in politics unless they measured 
up to the required standard ; that is, unless they were uncon- 
ditional partisans of the dictatorship. This restriction of the 
industrial force of the nation, which was gathered together 
almost exclusively under foreign management, and which 
was the only other serious, positive, beneficent force — one 
which favored a dictatorship only because of its own inabil- 
ity to establish liberty — removed from politics an independ- 
ent element which, not relying on the dictatorship for its 
daily bread, should have been free to fight it and establish a 
responsible government. 

FURTHER ELEMENTS OPPOSED TO LIBERTY 

Elements have existed in Mexico for the formation of 
an active, useful, respectable, conservative party. The prime 
requisite for this is an aristocratic land-owning class. Mexico 
has a landed aristocracy, Catholic in faith, a worshipper of 
traditions and a lover of liberty, confined within the limits 
of a centralized or federalized conservative republic. This 
aristocracy enthusiastically entered the political field under 
the protection of the Constitution of 1824, but failed of its 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 13 

aim because it lacked the real elements of strength; namely, 
great prestige in the eyes of the nation, great wealth, a feudal 
soul, or at least the military spirit, with a strong following 
in the army, and the effective support of religion. 

The most imposing national sanctuary is the Pantheon, in 
which repose the ashes of the dead whose immortal deeds 
have glorified the centuries. In countries that can lay claim 
to a venerable tradition the national glories are the heroic 
deeds of its nobility. As long as true patriots are left to 
these lands, even when anarchy has invaded them, the tribute 
of homage and gratitude will always be laid at their feet, 
when calm has restored to patriotism its reflective quality. 
Mexico cannot hold up to its white and mestizo ^ races glo- 
rious traditions, lengendary heroes, or inspiring visions of 
noble Crusaders and fearless conquerors of new worlds. The 
traditions of the Mexican Creole aristocracy are puerile. It 
represents the weak type which needed the firm hand of the 
conquerors to perpetuate its dominion. The people know 
well the significance of the coats of arms of their aristocracy. 
With the exception of the descendents of Cortes and his 
handful of formidable companions, the rest of the nobility 
merits the contempt or indifference of sane-minded people, 
and the hatred based on envy of the illiterate. However, 
although the pretensions to nobility among Mexicans may 
be irritating, in no instance have the culprits, the victims of 
foolish vanity or incorrigible petulance, deserved implacable 
persecution. 

The great wealth of the Mexican landowners is another 
well-worn lie which has held undisputed sway among those 
who have not an accurate knowledge of the Mexican social 
economic problem. In due time it will be shown thatrthe 
landowner's wealth was more imaginary than real, that they 
were burdened with innumerable difficulties and were more 
worthy of pity than of hate. 

1 Mestizo — a person of mixed Spanish and Indian blood. 



14 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The aristocracy was not a part of nor did its influence 
hold sway in the army. They committed the irreparable 
blunder of withdrawing their sons from the service after 
the fall of the Emperor Iturbide, except when it was a choice 
between begging or seeking a military appointment. 

The Catholic clergy has always been faithful to its duty 
of upholding the aristocratic class as the most faithful con- 
server of ultra-Catholic traditions. In the northern states 
it has almost entirely lost its hold upon the masses, but has 
held it among the people living south of the 22d parallel to 
the frontier of Guatemala, not, however, to a degree to in- 
spire heroic uprisings in defense of their faith. Without 
effective strength the Mexican conservative element could 
not take an active part in the government, because only the 
strong are privileged to govern. The middle-class poli- 
ticians found a way soon after the Declaration of Independ- 
ence to exclude the aristocracy from party struggles. An 
original system was invented, simultaneously enacted through- 
out Spanish-America. Every revolutionist, in the same 
breath that he proclaimed the revolution, declared every em- 
ployee of the established government a traitor, even when 
he himself had been one — in many cases the most favored. 
Every traitor was condemned to die, his property having been 
previously confiscated for the good of the country, and not 
even his children escaped the branding-iron of the "patriot." 
With such a system in vogue, and bearing in mind that ulti- 
mately every revolutionist triumphed, there came a time 
when property owners recoiled from taking part in politics 
since it was equivalent to aiding in their own execution. 
Only those who had nothing to lose and everything to gain 
entered the political field. From that time politics became 
the chosen trade of the demagogue, the storehouse of the ill- 
fed, the asylum of the deluded, who, notwithstanding some 
merit, were dragged into this sewer, the gentlemanly high- 
wayman's office being turned into a font of civic virtues. 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 15 

After its last political venture — the attempt to raise a throne 
in Mexico for the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Aus- 
tria — the conservative party abandoned politics, advising 
their sons to do the same, telling them to bear in mind the 
words of England's wicked king, spoken on the eve of the 
battle that was to dethrone him: 

"And if I die, no soul shall pity me: — 
Nay, wherefore should they? since that I myself 
Find in myself no pity to myself." 

The formation of a conservative party in Mexico was an 
impossibility. From 1824 to 1880 the only thing the aristo- 
crats dreamed of was the advent of the iron-handed dicta- 
tor who would restore peace without liberty, so that liberty 
might not cause the dishonor and death of the country. 

INTELLECTUAL ELEMENTS CONTRIBUTING TO LIBERTY 

Politics is a constantly changing and threatening prob- 
lem, and, like all great problems, requires a broad and thor- 
ough knowledge to solve it. In every country this can be 
accomplished only by its intellectual element. If President 
Wilson in his strange project to implant liberty in Mexico 
did not and could not count upon the organic forces of lib- 
erty — such as were the economic interests productive of po- 
litical and moral phenomena — neither could he count upon the 
intellectual element to favor his noble, although illogical 
propositions. In Mexico a truly liberal party has never 
existed, or even a faction, or do the genuine liberals 
enjoy the slightest political prestige. The genuine liberal 
in Mexico is the object of the aversion of the masses, of the 
persecution of the so-called liberals, who have guided and 
who still guide the destinies of the nation, and of the con- 
tempt of the noisy rabble that represents the people. Many 
noted foreign publicists have remarked this after studjing 
our politics. In Mexico the so-called liberal is a wild beast 
ever seeking to devour his neighbor's liberties and to abuse 



i6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

his own so-called liberties in order to turn them into unlimit- 
ed despotism. The great majority of Mexico's so-called 
liberals, moulded generally in the School of Jurisprudence, 
venerate the dogma of the "unlimited sovereignty of the 
people." Now, liberty is constituted by individual rights, 
called also "the rights of man." All government rights are 
an insuperable check placed upon the sovereignty of the peo- 
ple, and if the people hold the sovereignty individual rights 
should still constitute a check on this sovereignty. Before 
omnipotence no one has rights; consequently, before unlimit- 
ed sovereignty of the people liberty cannot exist. Such 
individualism is the Anglo-Saxon doctrine of liberty ac- 
cepted, applauded and taught in the United States. How is 
it possible that the president of a republic, wherein every 
citizen when there is a question of liberty possesses just as 
much authority as a university professor, should take seri- 
ously the Mexican self-styled liberals who acclaim the un- 
limited sovereignty of the people? 

There can be no liberty in a country where the power is 
concentrated in the hands of those who have invented the 
most heinous crime, destructive of liberal principles; that is, 
the crime of being "an enemy of the people" — a crime that 
should be punished with disgrace, confiscation of property, 
and even death itself. It is incomprehensible that the Mexi- 
can people who, according to their representatives, are the 
authors of the famous Constitution of 1857 — for which so 
much blood has been shed, so much pain borne and so much 
misery spread broadcast — can grant to each individual Mexi- 
can the right to be its sworn enemy, and, nevertheless, admit 
that all its enemies merit the punishment of confiscation, tor- 
ture, death and the subsequent persecution of their families. 
No one can be a personal enemy of the people, because the 
people as a whole have no physical personality. An indi- 
vidual may be said to be the people's political enemy when 
he is opposed to the popular class having a voice in the gov- 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 17 

ernment, or when he, justly or unjustly, censures a popular 
government. The Mexican Constitution recognizes the 
right of every individual to uphold theocracy, aristocracy, 
oligarchy, plutocracy or absolute despotism, which is equiva- 
lent to granting to every individual the right of denying the 
moral or intellectual aptitude of the people for self-govern- 
ment. Likewise, the Mexican people, in conformity with its 
institutive sovereign will — formally granted by the Consti- 
tution — gives to every individual the right to censure, justly 
or unjustly, the constitutional representative of the people, 
through whom it exercises its sovereignty. How is it 
possible — without characterizing this people as unjust, des- 
picable or demented — to accept the theory that it recognizes 
the right of every individual to declare himself its enemy 
within the limits indicated by the laws formulated by it, and 
that this public should yet believe itself civilized and just, 
when at the voice of a demagogue it tears its supposed enemy 
to pieces for having exercised the right granted by the Con- 
stitution and sanctioned by the people? 

The truth is that the Mexican people has never through 
the Constitution of 1857 given any individual the right to be 
its enemy. This great liberal legislative instrument was 
compiled by a number of honest and patriotic thinkers who 
believed, when they were formulating the law, that they were 
interpreting the will of the people — not the real people, but 
an imaginary people. Their dreams, fanned into delirium 
by the theories of foreign writers, caused them to mislead 
the illiterate Mexican people, incapable of understanding the 
meaning of rights much less that of liberties. 

There can be no justice among the peoples where this per- 
nicious doctrine is held, because it is incompatible with the 
popular claim to absolutism. There can be no science, be- 
cause in the ethnological classifications of the races they are 
divided into superior and inferior, their deformities and de- 
generations being noted just as though they belonged to the 



1 8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

zoological species. There can be no literature, because this 
reveals the cankers growing on the social body which repre- 
sents the people, exhibits them to excite horror, probes them 
so as to prognosticate the recovery or death of the people, 
and cauterizes them with irons, heated red-hot in the blast 
furnace of strict moral law. There can be no art, because 
without liberty the artist draws only caricatures of his in- 
spirations, or spurious copies of what should always remain 
hidden in nature. There can be no history, because false- 
hood plays a necessary and stupendous part in the lives of 
the peoples who do not admit this theory. Where this 
criminal "enemy of the people" doctrine is taught there ex- 
ists a people enslaved by adulators and accusers, who inflame 
its vanity and treat it practically like a domesticated beast. 
The Mexican liberals have never been able to understand 
that the establishment of a responsible government is impos- 
sible in a country where two political parties do not exist. 
These are the only means known up to the present time by 
which the establishment of dictatorships and the spread of 
anarchy can be prevented. The Mexican liberals, like those 
of all Latin-American nations, aim at the formation of only 
one political party — the liberal, needless to say — and the 
conservation of the power in its hands to the end of time. 
In general, the Mexican mind rebels against accepting as 
an undeniable truth that the one-party policy is pure folly, 
and that, even if against all laws it were possible to secure 
the existence of one party, the' monopoly of the supreme 
power is the most dire of all monopolies, inasmuch as it 
engenders the most insupportable of all tyrannies. 

That President Wilson cannot lay claim to the sym- 
pathies of a single one of the revolutionists in his attempt 
to implant liberty in Mexico is explained by the fact that 
what appears to be an unpardonable tyranny to the American 
mind, is acclaimed as the most precious form of liberty by 
the revolutionists and their followers. 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 19 

THE SOCIAL SUBSOIL 

In order to study the Mexican popular class in its politi- 
cal aspect it should be divided into two classes, rural and 
urban, the latter being further subdivided into the work- 
ing class — which forms an integral part of the industrial 
life of the country — the independent artisans and the do- 
mestics. 

The rural class represents eighty-five per cent of the 
total population. The majority of this class is composed 
of persons whose social condition may be said to rank with 
that of domesticated beasts, capable of being turned by the 
influence of certain socialistic or anarchistic processes into 
roaring, untamed beasts. Don Lorenzo de Zavala, an ultra- 
liberal and one of the most brilliant political men that 
Mexico has produced, had an unusual opportunity when he 
was governor of the state of Mexico to make a scientific 
study of the Indian, as the aboriginal race predominates in 
that state. I call attention to the fact that Zavala was not 
a canon, a feudal aristocrat, a courtier, or a plutocratic 
Jew. Zavala was a Jacobin of the most rabid type, held 
in check by a knowledge of realities analyzed by his great 
mind. Nevertheless, he tells us that the great and noble 
ideal of the Indian of 1830 was to exterminate the whites, 
confiscate their property, expel the mestizos under pain of 
death, reclaim Mexico for the indigenous race, and make 
of it a nation of Indians without a trace of white blood 
or European civilization. In a word, the Indian ideal 
was to faithfully reproduce the semi-theocratic empire of 
Montezuma, with its human sacrifices, its ferocious gods, 
its great lords with Asiatic visages, its cruel, implacable 
warriors and its inflexible laws, written on tablets of stone, 
as though to accentuate that progress, with its train of 
evils, would be conquered by brute force. In 1873 Loza- 



20 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

da, the Indian chief of the Sierra de Alica, at the head of 
18,000 perfectly armed and equipped men, made a des- 
perate attempt to restore Indian supremacy, and would have 
occupied and devasted the city of Guadalajara except for 
the check given him by General Corona in the battle of 
the Mojonera. The agrarian question has only been the 
froth of the Zapata insurrection. Fundamentally it is a 
caste war, destined to restore the Indian to his primitive 
religion, to his patria (fatherland) taken from him by 
the whites, to his laws violated by the Conquerors, to his 
wealth, real or imaginary, of which he was despoiled, and 
to realize vengeance's supreme ideal, to be recorded down 
the centuries, wiping out the heaped-up injuries of genera- 
tions. This is neither a fabrication nor an exaggeration. 
The representatives of the Zapatistas at the Aguascalientes 
Convention and at that of the City of Mexico during the 
administrations of Eulalio Gutierrez, Gonzalez Garza 
and Lagos Chazaro, declared clearly and firmly that what 
Mexico needed was to revert to the Indians, its real owners, 
and that no terms of agreement could ever be reached be- 
tween the conquered, turned into victims, and the con- 
querors, incapable of forgetting their rights of conquest. 

The great majority of the mestizo rural class, who re- 
semble the Arabs in their tendencies, are adventurous and 
love a nomad life. As a general thing they are cowboys 
whose ideal of liberty spells libertinism, and who with 
rapidity and ease fall into the ways of brigandage. The 
city population, composed of artisans, is absolutely free. 
Direct taxes have never been imposed upon it; it does not 
understand the meaning of the word national treasury, and 
knows no oppression other than a levy for obligatory mili- 
tary service. It is precisely this class which believes that 
no voice should be raised against the will of the people. It 
is anti-liberal, although it thinks itself liberal, the contra- 
diction being explained by the nature of its political train- 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 21 

ing, which has been always in the hands of the leading 
demagogues. 

The working-class is socialist from the moment it sets 
its foot in the political domain, and its soul revels in that 
paradise of social equality outlined by the apostles of free- 
dom. The only working-men organized in Mexico accord- 
ing to modern labor laws are the workers in the cotton 
mills, and they were so active in asserting their rights that 
the Madero Administration, terrified at their attitude, 
granted them what Mr. Wilson does not dare to grant and 
what the working-class has obtained only in New Zealand — 
a minimum rate of wage set by the State. So great a victory, 
obtained without a desperate effort on the part of the Mex- 
ican working-class, proves that a great future lies open to 
Socialism in Mexico. 

Throughout the Mexican popular class, except among 
the more civilized artisans and working-men commanding 
the highest day wage, the popular bandit — crowned with 
real or imaginary feats — is held in the greatest reverence. 
These brigands have taken the place of the ancient Lares, 
and the people, deprived of the guidance and influence of 
their parish priests, have fallen on their knees before the 
influence of the bandit, easily converted into a hero at the 
will of the press. 

THE MEANS TO RESTORE PEACE 

From this cursory glance at the framework of Mexican 
sociology, it will be seen that at the time the revolution of 
1 9 10 broke out there was an industrial element, backed by 
capital, which worked indirectly in politics, and was a de- 
cided partisan of the civilized and civilizing iron-bound dic- 
tatorship; a Catholic landed aristocracy, with servile souls 
and nerveless hands, ready to sell its pride of race, its 
religious zeal, its Iberian arrogance and its rights of con- 



22 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

querors in exchange for the protection of the mailed fist 
which would save it from having to risk its head and its 
fortune in the defense of its legitimate rights and ancient 
privileges; a cringing liberal crowd, subservient to all the 
dictators by its cowardice and corruption ; a majority among 
the people, reactionary to the point of reverting to Aztec 
barbarity; a socialist working-class and an anti-social artisan 
and domestic class. 

When President Wilson voluntarily took upon himself 
the role of one of the principal actors in the Mexican 
tragedy, he did not see what all other men of brains the 
world over had seen ; that is, that in Latin-American nations 
there are no democratic, aristocratic, theocratic or social- 
ist governments — all are bureaucratic. The bureaucracy, 
as should be the case, bows to the principle of all irrespon- 
sible governments — "the nation to satiate its gluttony." As 
it is not the producing class, which is the representative of 
all social, economic interests, and which should be safe- 
guarded with every possible moral, scientific and civic pro- 
tection, the office of the bureaucracy is that of the devastat- 
ing locust, working in its proper domain by means of heavy 
taxes. The ideal of all bureaucracies is that the great, 
voracious middle class — headed by the educated proletariat 
— should live tranquilly and lavishly at the expense of 
national and foreign capital and th^t of the popular classes, 
who were to be fooled with poisoned, sugar-coated pills, 
artfully prepared by the demagogues. 

The English had already reduced the Latin-American 
political parties to two, pithily described as the "ins" and 
the "outs"; that is, those who are in on the rake-oflE 
and those who are not. The formula for temporary peace 
in countries ruled by bureaucracies amounts to socialism for 
the kid-gloved politician. Each one is to receive from the 
national treasury what he needs to satisfy his desires, even 
though he may do nothing to earn it, or what he does may 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 23 

be done badly. General Diaz understood this. In 1880 he 
set aside 36,000,000 pesos to satisfy the greed of the Fed- 
eral, state and municipal bureaucracies; but this sum was 
barely sufficient to half provide for even fifteen per cent of 
the middle class, which lived directly or indirectly off the 
bureaucracy. The economic development of the country 
by means of foreign capital, especially American, enabled 
General Diaz to pacify the country by what came to be 
known as the great "Pan y Palo" (Bread and Rod) policy. 
No sooner was the voice of a malcontent raised against 
the Government because he had no share in the rake-off, 
than the dictator immediately took note of the "patriotic 
regenerator's" complaint, and apportioned to him his share 
of the spoils in proportion to his importance, and, conse- 
quently, his ability to upset the order of things. General 
Diaz, without ever having read the life of Louis XI of 
France, believed in that lugubrious monarch's principle of 
government — to draw all those toward him who were capa- 
ble of doing him grave injury or rendering him important 
services; or if the means of attraction failed, to kill them, 
because, forsooth, the Will of God must be fulfilled, and, 
incidentally, that of the king. To that astute policy, then, 
the Porfirian policy of "Pan y Palo" may be compared — 
the policy that all clever dictators have adopted from 
Augustus in Rome, down to Guzman Blanco in Venezuela, 
Porfirio Diaz in Mexico and Estrada Cabrera in Guate- 
mala. 

General Diaz succeeded in setting aside 170,000,000 
pesos annually to satisfy the voraciousness of the bureau- 
cracies, which sum figured in the Federal revenue budget 
of the states and municipalities. As the economic develop- 
ment of the country had created upward of 8,000 new posi- 
tions for the middle class in the commercial and industrial 
world, in banks and in connection with the railroads, 
seventy per cent of the middle class drew from the budget, 



.24 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the balance overflowing to the employments offered by com- 
merce and industry. 

General Diaz believed that by having virtually trans- 
formed the State into a socialist orphan asylum for the 
middle class he had secured perpetual peace for his country. 
He did not take into account the terrible consequences of 
the extraordinary system of contracts that was to spring 
up. This system consisted of propositions made by foreign 
capitalists through a native lawyer, influential in political 
circled, to install some important enterprise, of benefit to the 
public, at from double to tenfold the amount it ought legiti- 
mately to cost, according to expert estimate. The pro- 
moter — who often did not possess a red cent, but in ex- 
change represented an imaginary syndicate hailing from 
England, Chicago or Wall Street, ready to invest many 
millions in a country that above all needed money to de- 
velop its natural resources — and the lawyer had their share 
in the enormous profits, the remainder being divided be- 
tween the company that had actually invested the money 
and the public officials who had sold their honor. This 
contract system was composed of four elements: a promoter 
of foreign extraction, usually English and sometimes a 
Knight of Commerce; a company that undertook to buy the 
concession, binding itself to respect the terms agreed upon; 
the lawyer, and the public officials who were parties to 
the extortion. 

This system is the universal, public robbing-machine in- 
vented expre^ly to exploit countries whose government is, 
so to speak, ornamental. In Latin-America it has met with 
more success than Edison's most noted electrical discoveries. 
The one thought of the so-called political parties or factions 
is graft. Accordingly, they head their programs for the 
progress and salvation of their country with projects for 
the material betterment of the land, carrying them to the 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 25 

point of exhausting the public credit and dragging the last 
cent from the unfortunate tax payers; and at the same 
time making loud demands for greater educational facilities 
(for the schools provided certain perquisites), which if 
carried out would be sufficient to transform the humblest 
citizen into a learned doctor. The politicians reap the bene- 
fits of these projects for material betterment; the people have 
to be satisfied with the humble school. If they have nothing 
to eat, it matters not; if they are dying of hunger, it is all 
the same; the school is the panacea. The bureaucrats de- 
cided that the material benefits should be for them and the 
elevating dissertations of the pedagogues for the people. 

BUREAUCRATIC PERVERSION 

The contract system destroyed whatever moral sense the 
middle class possessed. The socialist working-men said: 
"We do not want the equality of the law, we want the 
equality of the dollar." To do them justice the modest sav- 
ings of the prosperous middle-class citizen served as a gauge. 
The bureaucrats, under the spell of the workings of this 
system, completely lost their heads and proclaimed the 
equality of all bureaucrats to be the equality of the dollar; 
but their standard was the Rockefeller millions. 

The Mexican middle-class family is, as a rule, a centre 
of civic putrefaction. This grew out of the voraciousness 
of the bureaucracies and was afterwards increased by the 
appearance of the contract system. When the influerKe of 
the Catholic clergy was weakened in Mexico, the Catholic 
families withdrew from the conservative party, giving free 
entrance to the lowest bureaucratic element. If the estab- 
lished government was conservative, the venerable head 
of the family, who was a Government employee, was also 
a conservative; his oldest son, usually a lawyer, always 
appeared in the role of a moderate; the second son, in that 



26 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

of an extreme liberal; the unmarried aunt was a socialist; 
the mother of the family was the comadre ^ of the general's 
aide-de-camp, who might at any moment raise the standard 
of revolt, and the son-in-law, who was the secretary of some 
working-man's society, would in any strike have killed two 
or three policemen, smashed shop windows and set fire to 
liquor and tobacco factories. Eveiy avenue was covered, 
so that in any event the bureaucratic employee would never 
be ousted from his softly feathered nest. Whatever may 
be the fluctuations in politics, the upheavals among the 
people, the situation among the ultra-radical faction, the 
bureaucratic family, not only in Mexico but in all Latin- 
America, has found the means of drawing perpetually on 
this apparently inexhaustible source at the cost of carrying 
out a degrading program to the letter of the law. When 
the so-called liberal party proclaimed its absolute dominion, 
having previously destroyed the conservative party, it split 
up into individualistic bands fairly vibrating Avith cupid- 
ity. The bureaucratic element then embraced the motto of 
the cynical Romans: "With Caesar, if he be strong; 
against him, if he be weak ;" and the members of the imme- 
diate circle of the Csesar devoted themselves to that policy 
of adulation that characterized them, which veiled the de- 
termination to betray him at the opportune moment. The 
women of the middle class were converted into low-grade 
politicians by their admission into the Government service. 
It has led to their aping the men when by virtue of their 
great moral superiority they are a privileged class, and the 
result is far from pleasing. In General Diaz's time the 
women Government employees, and those aspiring to the 
honor, belonged to a club called "Daughters of Carmelita," 

1 Comadre — compadre and comadre, called compadres, are the 
persons who stand sponsor for a child in baptism and confirma- 
tion. In Spanish-speaking countries a very warm personal tie 
binds the child's parents to their compadres. 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 27 

named after the dictator's wife. When Madero triumphed 
they called themselves "Daughters of Dona Sara P. de 
Madero." Since then we have had "Daughters of Huerta's 
Iron Hand," "Daughters of Villa," "Daughters of Zapata," 
and at the present time, I have no doubt, they appear as 
"Daughters of Carranza." Apparently they have experi- 
enced no difficulty whatever in effecting this kaleidoscopic 
change of parental authority. 



THE POISONED STREAM FROM WHICH THE POPULAR 
CLASSES HAVE DRUNK 

Gustave le Bon, referring to Latin-American republics, 
wrote: "In general and fundamentally the political prob- 
lem of the Latin-American democracies is the problem of 
public thieving." Undeniably the French sociologist is 
justified in his statement; but this does not mean that there 
are not in Latin-American governments many honest, intel- 
ligent, energetic and sincerely patriotic men whose influence 
is highly beneficial. As a rule, if they do not succeed in 
absolutely banishing corruption, they do prevent this bureau- 
cratic brigandage from producing by its unbridled license a 
state of social anarchy. Unfortunately, It is a fact that the 
ideal of the middle-class family is to be part of this bureau- 
cracy, and that the ideal of the bureaucracy is to rob the 
nation and individuals whenever possible. The mother is 
no longer the religious matron who shed the radiance of 
her virtue over the home, and reared men for God, country 
and humanity. In these days there are mothers who urge 
their husbands, sons, sons-in-law and brothers to steal from 
their country. Sons are reared with this idea, and it is carried 
to the point of inculcating that this public theft is a legiti- 
mate necessity, that it is an art, a sign of distinction. The 
result of this schooling in depravity has been that the lower 



28 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

classes have had this baneful example before their eyes for 
many years, which has destroyed the slender thread of civic 
virtue possessed by them at the time of the Declaration of 
Independence. It also threatens to destroy all personal 
virtue, because it goes without saying that a home which 
is a den of thieves cannot be the nursery of virtue and 
morality. 

Beginning in 1824, the Mexican middle class resolved to 
cast out of politics all the conservative elements that had 
been the outgrowth of tradition; namely, the army, the 
clergy and the landowners. After forty or more years of 
this so-called fight for principles — which in reality was only 
a fight for government posts — although politics was divided 
into two parties, the liberal and the conservative, the par- 
tisans never changed, they simply shifted their allegiance 
whenever it appeared profitable. Since 1867 the bureau- 
cratic middle class, directed by the educated proletariat, has 
been the absolute owner of Mexico, the real oppressor of 
the people, the octopus that has sucked the vital juice of 
all popular labor, of foreign and national capital, and of the 
patience of the victims who carried the weight of this 
race of vipers, given unreservedly over to bureaucratic can- 
nibalism. 

The powerful class in all Latin-American countries is to 
be found in the bureaucracy, but unfortunately for these 
countries, their bureaucracies are not, and never can be, 
governing classes. A government exists only where propH 
erty is respected. Proletarian sovereignty, when it is abso- 
lute, when it is not held in check by conservative elements 
strong enough to protect property, causes its ruin and ulti- 
mate destruction. The proletarian element cannot estab- 
lish a government without the aid of the army, which more 
or less successfully manages to hold the bureaucratic ele- 
ment within bounds by resorting to a dictatorship. On the 
other hand, an army in which the proletarian element pre- 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 29 

dominates gravitates toward absolute militarism, and is con- 
sequently dangerous. In Latin-American nations government 
without military support is not understood, even when this 
represents absolute militarism. This is the only force that 
can keep demagogism within bounds, and once suppressed, 
the latter seeing itself cut loose from all restraint, will do 
what it has done in Mexico — hand over the nation to every 
known form of brigandage. 

I challenge President Wilson, the oracles that have in- 
spired him, the politicians who have supported him, to give 
a single historical example of the existence of a government 
sustained by the dominion of the educated proletarian or 
working-class without that government being absolute and 
despotic. It was Montesquieu who first put into words the 
truth that had been established by centuries of experience: 
"In a country where aptitude for democracy does not exist, 
and which does not possess a governing class, only anarchy 
or a dictatorship is possible," 

Three Latin-American nations, Argentine, Brazil and 
Chile, have ceased to be ruled by strict dictatorships. The 
method adopted is a species of attenuated dictatorship, to 
which an admixture of the plutocratic-bureaucratic oligarchy 
has been added. They are generators of oceans of corruption 
by means of the contract system, so favorable for the schemes 
of public thieves. These nations owe their present state of 
freedom, combined with an increasing excess of bureaucratic 
cannibalism, to the aristocratic and plutocratic conservative 
elements, and to a popular element which defends its rights 
to its small property and its daily wages against the voracity 
and criminality of the demagogic element. In Mexico, since 
the influence of the Catholic clergy has declined in politics 
and its landed aristocracy has proved itself worthless, either 
as a militant or a peaceful political element, the only remain- 
ing conservative forces are the army, and the fact that the 
isolation of the ilUiterate rural classes puts them out of the 



30 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

reach of the demagogic apostolate, which in its latest form 
is represented by socialism and anarchism. 



PRESIDENT WILSON S BLINDNESS 

Five months before his overthrow and assassination, Presi- 
dent Madero, in his address to the Mexican Congress in 
September, 191 2, expressed his doubt as to the Mexican 
people's fitness for democracy. That worthy but artless 
President said: "Because if a government such as mine, 
which has honorably kept its promises ; which has done every- 
thing for the good of the Republic that was within the reach 
of its understanding; which was installed by the almost 
unanimous vote of the Mexicans — something that had never 
happened before; if such a government cannot endure in 
Mexico, Gentlemen, we should say that the Mexican people 
are not fit for democracy, that we need a new dictator who, 
sabre in hand, shall come to silence ambitions, to suflEocate 
all the efforts of those who do not understand that liberty 
can only flourish under the protection of the law." Inas- 
much as this government of Madero's did not endure, the 
deduction — according to the honest convictions of Madero 
himself — is that the Mexican people were not ready for a 
democracy but fitted only to remain under the tutelage of a 
dictatorship. 

In another address to Congress, one month later, recom- 
mending the introduction of a bill for compulsory military 
service. President Madero said: "We agree that the first 
requisite for a country's advancement is peace, and it seems 
— if we judge by Mexico's past history — that it is more diffi- 
cult to preserve peace when liberty exists than when it does 
not. When liberty does not exist no one talks, no one ap- 
pears to be ambitious, no one even aspires to have an ambi- 
tion, because he knows it will soon be extinguished ; but now 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 31 

that we have granted liberty, now that every one aspires to 
be governor, now that every one is free to electioneer in his 
own behalf, etc., it follows that if he is not supported in the 
elections he will take up arms." 

Madero was like all revolutionists who attain to power. 
When he planned the revolution against General Diaz 
he did not believe "that the first requisite for a country's 
advancement is peace," but proclaimed that the country's 
greatest need was liberty, and when he was at the helm of 
State and realized what liberty means in the hands of a 
people who do not know how to use it, he said : "It is more 
difficult to preserve peace when liberty exists than when it 
does not." Madero, for lack of knowledge and reflection, 
did not understand that peace and liberty go hand in hand 
only when the people possess the technical qualifications to 
be free, and that it takes a dictatorship to preserve peace 
when a people, instead of being sovereign, is easily led to be 
the blind and servile instrument of demagogism. Peoples 
can have no other form of government than that for which 
they are fit, and the Mexican people have clearly demon- 
strated their unfitness to be granted the rights of a free 
people. 

When the fall of Madero and his subsequent assassina- 
tion became known in the United States an American news- 
paper wrote the following just arraignment: "A people is 
not to be feared when its sane element has overthrown a 
government which it had only fifteen months before installed 
by acclamation; when it has applauded the greatest, the 
most infamous, the most cynical treason recorded in history, 
and when it has not sufficient virility to oppose forcible con- 
scription and the constant outrages of the government, and 
to suppress disorder, pillage, sack, rape, and the burning of 
villages by Huertistas, revolutionists and bandits." A peo- 
ple that allows itself to be slapped and spat upon, to have its 
laws torn to shreds, its gods overthrown, its women violated, 



32 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

to be robbed of its honor, its means of livelihood, even of 
the dry crusts which were once doled out to mendicants, is 
not a people capable of self-government, nor even of obtain- 
ing from its masterful owners the treatment accorded to 
slaves. 

One of the revolutionists, an honest, intelligent and per- 
fectly sincere man, a real reformer, took up the well-known 
phrase of Victor Hugo: "If a man is not a republican at 
twenty, it is because he has no heart, and if he is one at 
forty, it is because he has no brains." ^ 

If Victor Hugo had contemplated Latin-America for five 
minutes after its independence, he would have said: "If a 
man in these countries is not a democrat at twenty, he has 
no heart, and the one who at forty believes in the democ- 
racy of the people of the country in which he lives, either 
lacks sense or shame, or both." From the Straits of Ma- 
gellan to the frontier of the United States there is not an 
intelligent person who will not agree that the ridicule and 
contempt heaped upon Latin-American democracies by for- 
eign sociologists are amply justified. The upper classes are 
admirably skeptical in these countries, and if they speak of 
democracy to the people it is because they need the support 
of the sub-popular classes to carry out their great and bare- 
faced policy of theft. The sub-popular classes do not know 
what democracy means, but they take it up because profes- 
sional agitators have played upon their ignorance to the ex- 
tent of making them believe that democracy and happiness 
are synonymous, and that they can easily be obtained along 
the road of vice and crime. Don Lorenzo de Zavala, of 
whom I have already spoken, knew well the noble civic aspi- 
rations of our large political class, so large that it embraces 
almost the entire middle class, Zavala wrote a gospel in 
the following lines: "In this country everybody wants re- 
ligion, order, guarantees, the aggrandizement of the coun- 

1 Madero por una de sus intimos, p. 144. 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 33 

try; in other words, they ask for democracy, sovereignty of 
the people, liberty and justice, but what each one in reality 
wants is tajada (graft)." Don Lucas Alaman called Mexi- 
can politicians a race of vipers. Dr. Mora, a talented and 
honest liberal, wrote to the truly noble patrician, Don Val- 
entin Gomez Farias: "Take care that not an inch of the 
veneer that coats your followers be knocked off, because it 
will reveal their rascality." Don Sebastian Lerdo de Te- 
jada. President Juarez's talented minister, at the time of the 
triumph of the republican cause in 1867, ordered the sus- 
pension of further investigation of those suspected of trea- 
son to their country and to the liberal party by aiding the 
Empire, or receiving money in the guise of alms, because, 
if the investigation had been continued, it would have meant 
the apprehension of the entire liberal party. 

Don Pedro Lamicq, one of Madero's most ardent revo- 
lutionary followers, full of faith in his reform program, 
has written with great candor: "I am not a demagogue. 
I do not even know if I am a democrat. I do not believe, 
since Madero's unfortunate experiment, that it is possible 
for democracy to flourish in Mexico where the uncivil and 
uncivic Creole — fatal inheritor of the Spaniard's covetous- 
ness and insubordination — rules. I ask for a dictator, but 
a good dictator, one who will send the politicians to their 
homes and the newspaper men to jail ; who will immediately 
take up the work of reorganization and reconstruction; who 
will bind up the wounds of the people and mete out justice 
to them. A dictator with an iron hand who will seek to win 
the support of the people, surrounding himself with sane and 
inflexible men, Creoles, mestizos and Indians. A dictator 
who will lose sight of his personal interests and consecrate 
himself to the good of the people. And note well, dear 
friend, that I insist on this not only now after Madero's 
fiasco, but that I have insisted on it ever since my pen has 
been free to expres my thoughts under the protection of 



34 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

that libert>' which I have been one of the few to know 
how to understand and respect." ^ 

The testimony of science and history; of respected, tal- 
ented Mexican revolutionists; of European and American 
sociologists; of the American Ambassador to Mexico; of 
almost all the Americans in Mexico, who have had 
opportunities of studying the Mexican people; of all rep- 
resentative publicists, who have justly condemned Latin- 
American democracies; of the crimes committed by the great 
majority of the triumphant leaders of 191 1 ; of the American 
and Mexican Catholic clergy; of all the significant events 
emanating from the Madero revolution, obliges Mr. Wilson 
to follow a course worthy of his prestige as a man of moral 
integrity, as a university president and as the head of a 
political party in an individualistic democracy. But at the 
supreme moment, when everything that ordinarily would 
and could have impressed a great-minded man, urged pru- 
dence and justice, the President of the United States — car- 
ried away by academic dreams, saturated with lies collated 
and dispensed by his advisers for political reasons, swayed 
by the pernicious influence of the sirens who beset him, 
trafficking with the misfortunes, the gaping wounds, the 
blood, the frenzy and corruption of Latin-American repub- 
lics — resolved to implant liberty in a country where it is 
detested, especially by the liberals; where the only liberty 
that is loved is unlimited personal liberty and the destruc- 
tion of the liberty of others; that is to say, in a country 
where the only species of liberty that is understood is that 
of the jackal and the viper, exemplified by the exploits of 
the bandits, "every inch men," who have terrorized the 
land. The outcome has been the logical consequence of the 
policy. President Wilson, by recognizing a de facto gov- 
ernment of the ultra-despotic type, after having refused to 
recognize the Huerta Government because it was dictatorial, 

"^Madero por uno de sus intimos, p. 146. 



WILSON'S ATTEMPT A COSTLY FIASCO 35 

has practically acknowledged that his effort to implant 
liberty in Mexico has been a complete failure. It is even 
worse. President Wilson has not recognized a de facto 
government but a de facto anarchy, hoping to transform it 
into something bearing some resemblance to a government, 
in order to save himself from the severe arraignment that 
awaits him at the hands of humanity. 



CHAPTER II 

THE GREAT FIASCO OF THE MEXICAN REVO- 
LUTIONISTS AND PRESIDENT WILSON 
IN THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 

MARVELLOUS LANDS AND GRASPING LANDHOLDERS 

SOME excuse and perhaps even some justification may 
be made for President Wilson's mistakes as a states- 
man and a sociologist in regard to the Mexican po- 
litical situation; but he has also failed to grasp a still 
greater and mort important question — the agrarian situa- 
tion. In Mexico this has been incorrectly styled the agrarian 
problem, into which the revolution has injected the ques- 
tion of hunger — hunger for bread, for rights, for justice, 
for civilization, a hunger which crushes the social and pri- 
vate lives of 12,000,000 human beings, who for the past 
four hundred years have been the victims of the insufferable 
exploitation of a handful of cruel aristocrats, insatiable in 
their greed and implacable — intrenched behind their divine 
rights — in their oppression of the people. Such is the revo- 
lutionary thesis. It is clear, then, that if through the favor 
shown by President Wilson to the Mexican revolutionists 
the miserable eighty-five per cent of this downtrodden popu- 
lation were to attain prosperity. President Wilson would not 
figure among the apostles of liberty who offer to the people 
the "rights of man," when their primary need is bread, meat, 
clothing, comfortable, hygienic homes, diversions, idyllic do- 
mestic scenes; but he would figure among the teachers and 
apostles of humanity very near to Christ Himself. 

Don Luis Cabrera has rightly said : "Lc Revolucion es la 
Revolucion" (A revolution is a revolution), which Is only 

36 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 37 

another way of saying what has been said before: "Pour faire 
une omelette il faut casser les oeufs" ; and what has been shat- 
tered beyond the power of belief is the unfortunate Mexican 
people. But apparently this tremendous work of destruc- 
tion, carried on with the aid of crime, war, dementia, the 
spirit of vengeance, the appetite for pillage and all the re- 
pugnant, antisocial traits of prehistoric savagery, seems to be 
of little consequence if in the end the indigenous race be 
raised — even over the terror-stricken, bleeding and agonizing 
remnants of the nation — to a height capable of conferring 
upon its country an enviable renown, the race itself flourish- 
ing in the maternal bosom of the "Republic of Solidarity." 

The revolutionists have defined the agrarian question in 
the following terms, accepted by Mr. Wilson: 

First — That Mexico possesses in great abundance mar- 
vellous agricultural lands capable of feeding, even to excess, 
an enormous population of one hundred million, according 
to some; of two hundred millions, according to others; and 
of even more, according to those who more closely approxi- 
mate in intelligence the inferior vertebrates. 

Second — That these marvellous lands are not actively 
cultivated, owing to the fact that they are monopolized by a 
handful of cruel landowners who hold them undeveloped, 
in order to keep up the price of necessary commodities and 
enjoy the enormous gains obtained through the monopoly 
of the land, which once belonged to the Indians and which 
was stolen from them by the Spanish conquerors. 

Such is the fundamental basis of the social upheaval which 
has submerged Mexico and brought it into such unenviable 
prominence before the nations of the world. 

Before discussing the important and far-reaching prob- 
lems emanating from the revolutionary proposition, it is nec- 
essary to examine it calmly and dispassionately, and subject 
it to an intelligent analysis. 



38 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

THE FIRST LIE 

A formidable fact exists in our economic life which de- 
stroys the spectacular foundation of the Mexican Revolution. 
For more than twenty years past the fiscal statistics, published 
monthly and annually by the Mexican Treasury Depart- 
ment, show a yearly increase in the importation of corn and 
wheat from the United States or the Argentine. These im- 
portations are greater when more or less serious failures in 
the corn and wheat crops occur in Mexico. If the ignorant 
revolutionary publicist presumes to deny this fact, President 
Wilson may verify it by examining the export and import 
statistics published by the Federal Government of the United 
States, where in plain figures may be found the exact amount 
of corn and wheat exported annually to Mexico. 

This proves that not even in the j'cars when the yield of 
corn and wheat has been greatest in Mexico has the output 
been sufficient for the needs of its inhabitants, from which 
fact it may be deduced that Mexico has had more than 
twenty years' experience of the impotency of her lands to 
contribute enough for the support of her population. 

In order to bolster up the lie of the great richness of 
Mexico's corn-raising lands, the revolutionists assert that 
this impotence is intentional, brought about by the avaricious- 
ness of the landholders, who, wishing to keep up the prices, 
cultivate only a limited area, insufficient to meet the na- 
tional demands. 

Such an accusation is absurd, as will presently be seen. 
According to the agricultural statistics published by the De- 
partment of Fomento,^ the annual production of corn varies 
in the best seasons from 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 hectolitres, 
and if the lands which produce these had the wonderful fer- 
tility attributed to them in 1 803 by Baron Humboldt (75 

1 Department for the mining, agricultural and industrial devel- 
opment of the country. 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 39 

hectolitres per hectare) it would be necessary to cultivate 
only 800,000 hectares to produce 60,000,000 kilograms of 
corn; and as in Mexico one man is required for the culti- 
vation of every 5 hectares of land, it foUow^s that if the 
marvellously fertile lands of 1803 existed at present, the 
grasping landholders would employ only 160,000 day la- 
borers. By what means have the remaining 1,800,000 lived, 
who make up the sum total of our day laborers and who 
are accounted for in the agricultural statistics issued by the 
Department of Fomento ? 

Is the official figure of the number of day laborers en- 
gaged in the cultivation of corn and wheat given by the 
Department incorrect, or are there actually only 160,000? 
If two-thirds of these laborers are heads of families, and each 
family consists on an average of five persons, and if there 
are only 160,000 day laborers engaged in the cultivation of 
corn, it follows that Mexico does not possess 12,000,000 
poor inhabitants, but merely a laboring population of 
4,000,000. 

In order that 2,000,000 families may live from the prod- 
uct of the land set aside for corn-raising, it is indispensable 
that the yield be very small in order to afford an opportun- 
ity to employ 2,000,000 men in the maximum production of 
60,000,000 hectolitres. 

THE REGIME OF MISERY IN MEXICO. 

In Mexico there are three distinct divisions of land: the 
hot lands; the temperate lands and the cold lands of the 
central plateau, and the semi-arid lands of the northern 
plateau. The majority of the Mexican population is found 
grouped upon the central plateau, for reasons which will 
later be explained. Agriculture will not flourish where 
water is not available, and nations, which do not command 
large capital for the construction of the necessary irrigation 



40 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

plants in the arid regions, are driven to depend in their 
agricultural work upon the more or less uncertain rainfall. 

In Mexico this factor plays an important part, and may 
be considered the key to the nation's problem of poverty 
and misery. 

Going south from 21° north latitude to the boun- 
dary line of the temperate and the hot zone, the mean 
precipitation varies between 0.™50O and o.™750 of mean 
total annual precipitation. Upon entering the hot zone 
— except in the states of Campeche, Yucatan and a sec- 
tion of the state of Oaxaca — the annual precipitation in- 
creases, exceeding a metre in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 
The mean annual precipitation in the extensive section to 
which I refer has never been known to be less than o.'^soo 
in any part of its territory. Consequently, as corn and 
wheat require only from o.°'250 and o.'^soo of precipitation, 
coinciding with the time of its cultivation, and as this pre- 
cipitation occurs in this section (from the 21° north lati- 
tude to the frontier of Guatemala), it would be impossible 
to have a single failure in the corn crops, provided, of course, 
that the requisite amount of rainfall were not wanting. 
From the 21° to 22° north latitude the mean annual pre- 
cipitation is from 0.°'450 to o.'^SSo; but the minimum pre- 
cipitation runs as low as o.'"200, which means scant crops 
or complete failures. 

From the 22° to 24° north latitude the mean annual pre- 
cipitation is from 0.^250 to o.™300, but the maximum precip- 
itation rises as high as o.°^500, and the minimum falls as low 
as o.™ioo to 0.^050. North of the 24° of north latitude 
the maximum precipitation is 0.^400; the mean from 
0.^150 to o.™200 and the minimum o."ooo. It will be seen 
from the foregoing that, taking into consideration only the 
total annual precipitation in the southern and central pla- 
teaus, extensive agriculture could count infallibly on good 
crops, and the change to intensive agriculture could be made 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 41 

when the impoverishment of the land warranted it. In the 
northern plateau, which is greater in area than the central 
and southern plateaus combined, the territory between the 
2 1 St and the 24th parallels might be considered, if we take 
into consideration only the annual precipitation, as accepta- 
ble agricultural land; and that between the 24th parallel 
and the frontier of the United States, as a very extensive 
tract suitable for the development of a rich timber industry 
in the Sierra Madre, and for extensive cattle raising on 
the plains. 

Unfortunately, physical conditions in Mexico are such as 
to present grave obstacles to the progress of civilization and 
the improvement of the people's condition, along lines pos- 
sible in other countries. 



. . THE HIGH-WATER MARK OF THE REGIME OF MISERY 

North of the 22d parallel, owing to the effect which the 
huge mountain ranges have had in diverting the rain clouds, 
immense salt plains, sparsely covered with vegetation, and 
great sandy deserts, devoid of every trace of plant life — 
lacking even the somber growth that dots the great deserts — 
have been formed. North of Aguascalientes we have the 
arid Valle del Salado, which includes a great part of the 
states of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, merging into the 
Bolson de Mapimi, a still more extensive desert, which em- 
braces the greater part of the states of Coahuila, Durango 
and Chihuahua. The state of Coahuila contains still another 
desert, the Barreal de la Paila, and the melancholy deserts 
of Sonora are well known, comprising, as they do, ninety-five 
per cent of its extensive territory. Lower California is a 
gigantic serpent of leaden-colored mountains, surrounded 
by a mournful, grayish desert, furrowed as though some 
huge plough had been forced through its sands. 

Lower California covers the same area as England, but 



42 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

its agricultural output would not sustain 6o,ooo souls. The 
state of Coahuila has an area of 165,000 square kilometers 
and, excepting the "Laguna" region, which is fertilized by 
the overflow of the river Nazas, this state does not afford 
in arable land even one-half of one per cent of its entire 
territor)^ The state of Chihuahua, whose territory equals 
that of one-half of France, possesses only 50,000 hectares of 
arable land, and the greater part of this is irrigated. The 
state of Durango, with the exception of the Valle del Suchil 
and the Valle de las Poanas, is either mountainous, desert or 
second- or fourth-rate grazing land. The greater part of 
the states of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas is arid, and not 
even three per cent of their entire area consists of arable 
lands. The states to which I have referred possess an area 
of 984,170 square kilometers, equivalent to one-half the 
entire area of Mexico, a half which for the present can be 
qualified as entirely unfitted for agricultural purposes. This 
does not mean, however, that the inhabitants of these states 
ever cease to speak of the remarkable richness of their privi- 
leged soil, or that they do not teach in the public and private 
schools of these states a choice assortment of lies concerning 
the local and national resources. All these states indisputa- 
bly possess great potential wealth in their mines, some of 
them, in their forests and grazing lands; but their claim to 
great agricultural resources is an absurdity. 

The remaining portion of Mexican territory, between the 
22° north latitude and the frontier of Guatemala, is ex- 
tremely mountainous. Baron Humboldt estimates that more 
than two-thirds of this territory is occupied by mountain 
ranges and isolated mountains, and a mere glance at an oro- 
graphic map of the Republic of Mexico is all that is needed 
to convince one that the learned Prussian's estimate is amply 
justified. Calculated from this basis, m.ore than 676,000 
square kilometers are mountainous and unfit for the cultiva- 
tion of cereal or leguminous products. A mountainous 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 43 

country is one in which deep gorges, impassable ravines and 
great stretches of sloping lands, washed bare by the rains, 
must necessarily abound. It is also necessary to separate the 
summer stubble grazing lands from the fertile section we 
have been considering in order to arrive at a correct estimate 
of the arable lands — outside the hot zones — which sustain 
the great majority of the Mexican people. 

In short, deducting from the Mexican territory the sec- 
tions occupied by the great mountain chains and their branch 
ranges (which are considerable), the gorges, the ravines, the 
sloping lands, the immense desert tracts (which have no, or 
scarcely no, rainfall), the extensive grazing lands and the 
summer stubble pasture lands of the central plateau, there 
remain available for the cultivation of cereal or leguminous 
products the 10,000,000 hectares of land, designated by the 
report of the Department of Fomento, and further confirmed 
by data furnished by agricultural corporations and political 
and administrative associations. 

A country whose entire area consists of 200,000,000 
hectares, of which only 10,000,000 can be claimed for the 
cultivation of products suitable for human consumption, 
cannot be considered an overwhelmingly rich country, 
scarcely even moderately rich. A country which can count 
only upon five per cent of its lands to produce the elements 
from which its population must directly draw its life, cannot 
be considered otherwise than distinctly poor in this respect. 

THE DEATH AGONY OF THE MEXICAN PEOPLE 

A people situated as is the Mexican people, with only 
10,000,000 hectares of lands capable of producing cereal 
or leguminous products, will be prosperous or wretched ac- 
cording to the efforts expended upon its arable section. In 
France the production is under intensive cultivation 45 
hectolitres per hectare of corn, and 10,000,000 hectares of 



44 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

productive land would under intensive cultivation produce 
450,000,000 hectolitres of corn annually, besides at least 
one-fourth as much in beans, which can be raised in the same 
furrow with corn. Corn, combined with beans, constitutes 
for a people depending upon it for their sustenance, an abso- 
lutely healthy, hygienic and highly nutritious food. Conse- 
quently, the people possessing 10,000,000 hectares of arable 
land suitable for the production of cereal and leguminous 
products, can maintain a population of 90,000,000 in a region 
where propitious conditions exist. The Mexican people, on 
the other hand, numbering only 15,000,000 and possessing 
10,000,000 hectares of arable land, in great part almost ex- 
hausted and, consequently, meagre in its yield, is nothing 
more than a people in the last stages of dissolution. 

Baron Humboldt, in his Ensayo Politico sobre la Nueva 
Espana, based upon careful and conscientious computation, 
assures us that in 1803 the average yield of the arable lands 
was 150 grains of corn for every grain sown, which repre- 
sents 75 hectolitres of corn harvested per hectare. 

In the Boletin Mensual de la Secretaria de Fomento, for 
February, 1812, published by the Mexican Government, 
there appears the report of the Cdmara Nacional Agricola 
de Leon (state of Guanajuato), rendered to the Depart- 
ment of Fomento, in which it is stated that the average pro- 
duction of the famous lands of the Bajio has fallen to 8 
hectolitres per hectare. I cannot at this moment recall 
whether it is in No. 3 or No. 4 of the said bulletin that the 
average of these corn lands for the year 19 10 is given, show- 
ing a fluctuation of from 8 to lo hectolitres per hectare. 

From these figures, which are not those of the Mexican 
demagogues, the subsidized newspapers, the mediocre states- 
men or the lay apostle devoid of learning, some idea may be 
formed of the miserable plight of the Mexican people in 19 15. 
If the lands set aside for the cultivation of corn in 1803 
yielded, on account of their remarkable fertility, 75 hecto- 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 45 

litres per hectare, and if these same lands yielded only 8 to 
10 hectolitres per hectare in 19 10, it is evident that if the 
Mexican people continue to depend upon extensive agricul- 
ture for their maintenance, their total annihilation by star- 
vation is near at hand. This is all the more certain if w^e 
take into consideration that in 1803 the Mexican population 
was only 5,000,000, whereas now it is 15,000,000, three 
times more, indicating a serious situation for the people if 
the decrease in the productiveness of the land continues at 
the present alarming rate. 

It will not be necessary for this decrease in productive- 
ness to reach its lowest limit to accomplish the complete an- 
nihilation of the Mexican people. It will suffice for the 
production to be reduced to 3 hectolitres per hectare to de- 
prive the laborer's family of the means of subsistence; and it 
will surely incapacitate the laborer for his work, because of 
the lack of proper nourishment, if the production be re- 
duced to 2 hectolitres per hectare. 

The salvation of the Mexican people is easy in theory. It 
will suffice to have them pass from extensive to intensive 
agricultural methods, not an easy or practical achievement, 
and virtually an impossible one in the limited time that the 
alarming decrease in the productiveness of the land makes 
imperative. 

From the foregoing data it will be seen that the Mexican 
agrarian problem cannot be solved by the mere distribution 
of lands which in a very short time will be practically worth- 
less. The agrarian problem consists in something far more 
difficult — the creation of lands for the people. The dis- 
tribution of the lands for the continuance of extensive agri- 
culture would be more harmful for the Mexican people than 
if they were retained by the landholders, as I shall presently 
show. 



46 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

THE REAL PROBLEM 

"The Sphinx must be answered or Thebes will die!" 
Science must be answered or Mexico will die! The ques- 
tion may be summed up as follows: 

First — Can the Mexican rural population pass suddenly 
from the present extensive mode of cultivation, notably 
crude, to the intensive method, so exactlj'^ scientific? 

Second — Has the Indian or the mestizo the economic, 
moral or intellectual qualifications to enable him to trans- 
form himself into a scientific farmer? 

Third — Supposing the foregoing questions are satisfac- 
torily answered, has the Mexican laboring class time suf- 
ficient in which to make its own the indispensable elements 
which will fit it to carry to a successful finish this stupen- 
dous transformation? 

If the Mexican revolution fails, the avowed purpose of 
which, according to its apologists, has been to save the Indian 
from hunger and uplift him, the revolutionists will deserve 
the execration of the entire civilized world, a fate which 
must be shared by Mr. Wilson, the President of the United 
States, who has desired to figure as an apostle in a drama 
the plot of which he has never understood. 

Intensive agriculture by dry farming is only possible where 
adequate rainfall conditions prevail. In England, Germany, 
France and Austria-Hungar}^, and in parts of Italy, Spain, 
Russia and the United States, the rainfall is sufficiently reg- 
ular to permit the undertaking of intensive agriculture. In 
England, when fourteen per cent of the normal crop of 
even one section is lost, owing to some irregularity in the 
rainfall, it is considered a calamity, and the Germans look 
upon the loss of ten per cent of their crops as a serious 
matter. 

The Mexican dry farmer is a luckless gambler, playing 
the lottery of alternate rain and drought year after year, 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 47 

ending always in bankruptcy. He sows his corn and expects 
that the crop will be very good; fifty per cent of the best 
jaeld; twenty-five per cent; five per cent, or nothing! A bad 
season, or a disastrous one, is not an unheard-of phenomenon 
for the farmer. He may experience successively four, five, 
seven or ten bad years, or two series of bad years interrupted 
by one or two good ones. There are series of good seasons, 
but they are always shorter than the bad ones and do not 
occur as frequently as the latter. The Spaniards introduced 
the cultivation of all cereals into America, the Indian having 
hitherto cultivated only corn; and corn dry farming con- 
tinued to prevail in New Spain because the uncertain rain- 
fall did not permit the cultivation on a large scale of the 
other cereals, especially wheat. 

Corn has been imposed on the Mexicans by their climate. 
In the fertile regions, where the population has massed, 
there are no years of drought, but during these years there 
are dry months which too frequently suffice to destroy crops. 
The regular rainy season occurs in Mexico during the 
months of June, July, August and September, although scant 
and irregular rains sometimes occur in March, April, May 
and October. 

Every one versed in agricultural matters knows the 
"ninety-day corn," so called because it takes this length of 
time to bring it to maturity. In Mexico it cannot be ma- 
tured in this length of time except in the hot zones, because 
the soil cannot furnish the required amount of heat. In 
the temperate zones it requires one hundred and twenty days 
to mature the ninety-day corn, and in the cold zone, which 
comprises the most extensive corn-raising area, it requires 
the same time to mature this as it does to mature any other 
kind — that is, six or seven months, and it consequently in- 
curs the risk of being overtaken by the farmer's other sworn 
foe — the frost. Frosts are ruinous to the corn if they occur 
from the second fortnight of March onward, or early in 



48 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the month of September. They have been known to occur 
at any time. The one which caused the great famine of 
1794, which carried off hundreds of thousands of souls, took 
place in August. It is the exception, however, when a frost 
occurs in the four months of the rainy season, and one- 
hundred-and-twenty-day crops rarely sufEer, whereas the six- 
and seven-month crops are frequently lost. The most ex- 
tensive tracts of cultivated lands in Mexico are to be found 
at a great height above the sea level, and for this reason there 
is constant danger of losing crops by unexpected frosts. 

The frosts and the irregularity of the rainfall do not per- 
mit the intensive cultivation or dry farming of any cereal or 
leguminous products in Mexico with any marked degree of 
success. 

MEXICO ALWAYS A FAMINE-STRICKEN NATION 

The irregular rainfall has been the cause of Mexico's 
almost chronic state of starvation, even in the days when its 
wonderfully fertile lands could have sustained a population 
fifty times greater than that which Mexico had after the 
Conquest, when the Colonial Government had established 
a civilizing tranquillity. 

All honest persons who plead for pity for the Mexican 
Indian, who applaud the immolation of two or three mil- 
lions of Mexico's inhabitants on the altar dedicated to the 
uplift of the indigenous race, all foreign and national states- 
men who consider it their duty to intervene in "the Mexican 
question," are in honor bound to read the following lines, 
relative to Mexico, written by Baron Humboldt: "We have 
yet to examine the physical causes which almost periodically 
check the natural increase of the Mexican population. These 
are smallpox, that dread disease called matlazahuatl by the 
natives, and above all famine, the effects of which are felt 
for a long time afterwards."^ 

1 Humboldt, Ensayo politico sabre la Nueva Espana, Vol. I, p. 64. 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 49 

Again, quoting the same author: "A third obstacle which 
retards the growth of the population of New Spain, and 
perhaps the most cruel of all, is famine."'^ 

Baron Humboldt laid stress upon delivering the Indians 
from this scourge which constantly menaced them, notwith- 
standing their fertile lands, as he continues: "The frugality 
of the native Aztec is almost equal to that of the Hindoo, 
and the frequent famines might be obviated by the multipli- 
cation of articles suitable for cultivation and by directing the 
industry toward vegetable products more easily preserved and 
transported than corn and starchy products."^ 

Humboldt was a blind believer in the alimental properties 
of the banana, attributing to it nutritious qualities equal to 
those of wheat ; and as the cost of its production in the warm 
zones is very much less than that of any of the cereals, 
the solution of the famine problem in New Spain, according 
to Humboldt, was to be found in having recourse to the 
banana as a popular article of food. Unfortunately, chem- 
ical analysis, which failed to reveal the presence of proteins, 
and the physiological progress of humanity, have rejected it 
as the one and only article of food for those who wish to 
enjoy health and mental vigor equal to the demands of pres- 
ent-day civilization. 

Lastly, Humboldt says: "The disproportion existing be- 
tween the growth of the population and the increase of the 
food supply through cultivation, renews the sad spectacle of 
famine whenever, through a great drought, or some other 
local cause, the corn crop fails. "^ 

When an individual or a people accustomed to being nour- 
ished only by healthful, palatable and nutritious foods, such 
as would in every way meet the requirements of any civilized 
nation, see or hear that individuals or peoples eat with relish 
reptiles, bugs, slimy deposits from stagnant pools and things 

^ Humboldt, Ensayo politico sobre la Neuva Espana, Vol. I, p. 67. 
^ Idem, Vol. I, p. 310. 
^Idem, Vol. I, p. 68. 



50 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

of a like nature, which as a usual thing cause disgust and 
nausea, it must be admitted that this perversion of the nat- 
ural appetite can have originated only in the torturing pangs 
of an acute hunger. The population that eats with relish 
such loathsome stuffs must have been driven to do so fre- 
quently from necessity. Only thus could that first inevita- 
ble loathing have been overcome and, by perverting the taste, 
changed something which must at first have been nauseating 
into a palatable article of food. When the possessor of ex- 
cellent agricultural lands found disgusting substances palata- 
ble as food, it proved that there must have existed some tre- 
mendous problem in their development which forced him to 
put the life-giving wheat and the revolting vermin on the 
same level. 

The historian Clavijero says: "The Indians also made use 
of a slimy substance which floats on the waters of the lake, 
drying it in the sun and preserving it to eat in place of 
cheese, which it very much resembles in taste. They called 
it tecuitlatl, stone excretion."^ 

The insect which the Mexican Indians sell at the present 
time for bird food, and which is so loathsome in appearance, 
was and still is considered by them a choice delicacy. 

"The small insect called axayacatl is still to be found 
and is the same that the Indians peddle in the streets as a 
bird food. 

"Don Pablo de la Llave classified it under the title of 
ahuautlea mexicana. They caught these in such large quan- 
tities that they had enough for their own consumption, to 
feed many birds and to sell in the markets."- 

"They ate anenextl, the larvse of we know not what in- 
sect, in the stage of metamorphosis round, four-footed, broad 
at the head and dark in color; the michfailij of which we 
know as much as we do of the preceding one; the milpich- 

1 Clavijero, Historia Antigua, Vol. I, p. 390. 

- Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de Mexico, Vol. I, p. 321. 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 51 

teteij which is similar; the izcahuillij a red worm which ap- 
parently has no head, having a tail at both extremities; the 
atopinan, dark-colored, and the oculiztac, black, but which 
turned white when toasted. 

"They also availed themselves for food of certain loath- 
some animals; snakes, even the terrible rattlesnake (crosta- 
lus rhombifer), first cutting off the head; scorpions, from 
which they removed the poisonous dart; lizards, cuauhquetz- 
palin {Cyclura pectinataj Weig; Cyclura acantura, Gray; 
iguana rhinolofa, Weig), of which species they ate not only 
the meat but also the eggs. They ate a species of ant like 
those called azcamoli and the necuazactl, or honey ant, from 
which they sucked a sweetish fluid; locusts, chapolin, espe- 
cially that called acachapolin; worms which breed in the 
maguey, meocuilin, and those that breed in the ears of corn, 
etc., etc."^ 

By the reading of Baron Humboldt's book (the only stu- 
dent who ever wrote realities about Mexico), the states- 
man, even though he be mediocre — and for him the reading 
becomes a duty — ^will reach the conclusion that the Mexi- 
can people in 1 803 were already a people long used to the 
ravages of famine, presenting the truly sad spectacle of a 
nation which in three centuries had barely doubled its 
meagre population of 2,000,000 existing at the time that 
the stable Colonial Government replaced the period of 
Conquest. And these conditions existed notwithstanding 
its immense territory (New Spain comprised also the states 
of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California), which 
afforded ample lands for cultivation and for the mainte- 
nance of more than 100,000,000 human beings. 

As it is mainfestly impossible for a constitutionally 
starved people to be a rich people, the oft-reiterated state- 
ment of Mexico's great natural agricultural wealth, out- 

1 Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de Mixico, Vol. Ill, p. 161. 



52 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

side the warm zone, has been a He fabricated by Mexicans, 
not by Baron Humboldt. 

The joint action of three leading factors, the irregularity 
of the rains, the frosts and the impoverishment of the arable 
lands by centuries of extensive agriculture, has brought 
about an intolerable condition. 

By way of illustration, let us take i,ooo hectares of land 
as good as some that is to be found in the Valle del Suchil 
and that of las Poanas in Durango, which in a good year 
are capable of yielding as much as 200 hectolitres of corn 
per hectare. The cost of working a hectare of Mexican 
land by the extensive method of cultivation is scarcely 
20 pesos, including such items as rent, general expenses, 
taxes, interest on capital invested, and a good profit for 
the planter. This, however, is the cost of cultivation of 
one hectare of non-yielding crop, not including, therefore, 
the cost of harvesting, transportation, storage and thrashing. 
If a planter cultivates 1,000 hectares and has a total loss of 
crops for a period of ten years, he has lost 200,000 pesos. 
But if in the eleventh he happens to reap an excellent crop, 
he gets 200,000 hectolitres of corn, which, sold at 3 pesos 
a hectolitre, would bring him 600,000 pesos, balancing 
the loss of the poor years and giving him a large profit. 
This example proves that the planter may prosper notwith- 
standing the irregularity of the rains. 

But when the lands are exhausted, as is the case in the 
district of Bajio, and the yield in favorable seasons has 
fallen as low as 8 hectolitres per hectare, it requires only 
one bad year for every two good ones to ruin the planter. 
This is precisely what has happened in Mexico. The con- 
stant decrease in the productiveness of the arable lands has 
created an intolerable situation for the planter and, conse- 
quently, also for the Indian. And if the planter, who can 
counterbalance these losses by reducing his expenses, by tak- 
ing his family to live at the plantation in order to econo- 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 53 

mize, by mortgaging his property, by big loans from banks 
and money-lenders, finally ends in bankruptcy, how could 
the Indian meet the situation as an independent planter, 
having none of the resources of the landed proprietor? It 
is certain that the great majority of the eighty-five per cent 
of the Mexican population — that eighty-five per cent which 
is President Wilson's "passion" — ^was horribly destitute 
prior to the revolution of 1910. The chief cause of its 
misery, however, is not to be found in its want of liberty, 
its lack of universal suffrage, in the Cientificos, in dictator- 
ships, landowners, plutocrats, individuals or corporations, 
but in its climate. If, as Baron Humboldt has said and 
facts have proven, the Mexican nation was famine-stricken 
when it had at its disposal the most fertile lands in the 
world, capable of feeding a population fifty times greater 
than that which it had in 1600, it is offensive for men of 
supposed learning and culture to attribute the misery of 
the Mexican people exclusively to a handful of individuals 
who have put in an appearance only within the last gen- 
eration. 

The solution of the Mexican problem and the salvation 
of its people is to be found, as I have previously said, in 
the substitution of the intensive method of cultivation for 
the extensive. But this cannot be accomplished by the sim- 
ple recommendations of the peevish professors of the School 
of Agriculture in the City of Mexico and the clamors of 
the self-appointed sages who are constantly doling out ad- 
vice upon subjects that are quite beyond the reach of their 
intellectual equipment. 

The cost of harrowing and sowing one hectare of land 
in Mexico, destined for corn dry farming, does not exceed 
12 pesos; and if the crop is lost there is no further expense 
to be incurred. A planter who owns 1,000 hectares of 
arable land, estimated at about 300 pesos each, would have 
a capital of 3,000 pesos, and the loss of his crop would 



54 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

mean the loss of 12,000 pesos. But if he undertakes the 
intensive method, the cost of cultivation per hectare in 
Mexico for a non-yielding crop cannot be less than 80 pesos, 
and the loss of the planter who cultivated 1,000 hectares 
would be in a single year 80,000 pesos; and in three bad 
seasons out of ten, or perhaps out of five, or out of three, he 
would be totally ruined. Intensive agriculture, in order to 
be a success and to safeguard the interests of the planter, 
must be able to depend upon assured crops; and as in 
Mexico, on account of the irregularity of the rains and 
the frosts, such a guarantee cannot be given, it is impossible, 
in the face of scientific evidence and in the interests of 
the planter and of the Mexican people themselves, to intro- 
duce the intensive method of cultivation, unless the security 
of the crops has first been guaranteed by the installation of 
adequate irrigation facilities. 

Irrigation alone, however, will not enable the Indian to 
establish intensive cultivation in Mexico. Other condi- 
tions must prevail, which I shall endeavor to make clear 
as we progress with this necessarily cursory review of our 
interesting but somewhat somber social problem. 

THE SECOND LIE 

Since the declaration of our independence, no lie has been 
more thoroughly exploited by agitators to enlist the sym- 
pathies of really high-minded persons, to whom the condi- 
tion of the Indian makes a genuine appeal, than that which 
attributes the really abject condition of the indigenous race 
to the criminal wickedness of the white man, above all to 
that of the egotistical planter, "wanton and cruel." 

"The Indian" stands for the race, and when examining 
the life of the race, and the devious and thorny ways of 
its development, the condition of the majority is to be con- 
sidered, because only a majority is representative. It is 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 55 

unscientific, to say the least, to designate a race as unfor- 
tunate because this happens to be the condition of the 
minority. 

During the Colonial regime the natives were divided 
into four groups: the domestic, employed as servants by 
the mestizos, Creoles and Spaniards, whose position enabled 
them to hire servants; the carriers; the plantation workers 
and the village dwellers, the latter divided among villages 
formed exclusively of Indians. The first was very small 
because, from the time of the Conquest to that of independ- 
ence, the population of the cities was fifteen per cent lower 
than that of the rural districts; the second was also small, 
because the introduction of beasts of burden by the Spaniards 
greatly reduced the necessity of employing the natives in 
this capacity; and the third was likewise small, owing to 
the stringent law enacted against plantation owners. This 
law required that when the Indians of a plantation reached 
a fixed number, it should automatically become a village, to 
which the immediately outlying territory was assigned to 
be held in common for the benefit of the inhabitants. The 
owner had not the right to reclaim his lands or to demand 
indemnity for their expropriation. All chroniclers and his- 
torians agree that the majority of the natives were con- 
centrated in the villages. 

It is not true that the villages were established by the 
Conquerors or by the Colonial Government. They were 
founded by the Aztecs, the needs of the inhabitants being 
considered and the necessary amount of land assigned to 
each family, as well as pasturage and timber lands. The 
land was apportioned to the heads of families, to be held 
by them as sole owners during their lifetime, and in such 
proportion as they were able to work alone, or with the 
help of their sons when these reached the working age. 
The hills and the pasture lands were held in common. The 
Conquerors gave proof of their adaptability and beneficence 



56 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

by respecting this Aztec organization, which was loved and 
revered by the Indians and which met their moral aspira- 
tions and economic needs. It is not true, therefore, that 
the Spaniards despoiled the poor Indians of their lands, for 
the simple reason that they did not possess them in the sense 
of personal ownership, to be passed on to his descendents, 
and their ancient regulations were scrupulously respected by 
the Conquerors. The despoiled were the high-caste Aztecs, 
the imperial family and the military and sacerdotal castes, 
who were the oppressors of the Indians. Three-fourths of 
New Spain was not under the dominion of any government, 
but was populated by savage hunting tribes, who, owing to 
the absence of cattle, had not even attained to a pastoral 
existence. In no land have these roaming, savage tribes 
ever laid claim to rights of property, nor, in fact, do they 
understand them; and never has it entered the mind of 
sociologist, moralist, theologian, historian or jurist, ancient 
or modern, to consider the wild hunting tribes as the pro- 
prietors of the lands they occupy in common with the wild 
beasts of the forests. This has been the chosen work of the 
demagogue. 

The aristocracies of the aboriginal races and of the Aztec 
imperial regime, which possessed a civilization in a barbaric 
age, suffered from the Spaniards only what they had im- 
posed upon other nations and tribes by the right of conquest. 
It is indefensible to deny the rights of conquest to the Span- 
iards and to grant them to the Aztecs, who had in reality 
exercised their prerogative of conquest much more freely 
and cruelly than the Spaniards. If we begin to question 
the rights of conquest and to assert the property rights of 
aboriginal races, we shall arrive at a point where we shall 
have logically to return the lands to the zoological species 
inferior to man, until we end, if we believe in the theory 
of evolution, in granting the rights of property to the primi- 
tive, microscopic vegetable organisms. 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 57 

CIVIL OPPRESSION ALSO A LIE 

Inasmuch as the great majority of the aboriginal race in 
New Spain lived in villages, it is in these that we must 
seek to study their social condition, because, as I have 
already said, only the majority in any aggregation can repre- 
sent it, in whatever sense one may interpret the representa- 
tion. 

Under the Aztec regime the Indians of the villages paid 
heavy tribute to the sacerdotal and military castes and also 
to the Crown. They were bound to military duty and to 
service without remuneration in certain civil positions, and 
to interminable campaigns in the interests of an aggressive 
empire, which lightly provoked and undertook bloody and 
exhausting wars. Their legislation, like that of all bar- 
barous nations, was severe and abused the right of torture 
and the death penalty with unheard-of atrociousness. 

It is impossible to doubt, putting aside the depredations 
and crime of the Conquerors, and after the abolition of the 
"encomiendas" in the seventeenth century, that the social 
condition of the aboriginal race was better than that of 
any people in the world, except the Anglo-Saxon peoples. 
The introduction by the Spaniards of live stock was an 
inestimable benefit to the aborigines, the use of horses, mules 
and asses relieving the Conquerors of the inevitable necessity 
of employing the Indians in the exhausting capacity of beasts 
of burden. All tributes heretofore levied were reduced to 
a single moderate tax under ' the head of poll-tax. The 
Indians were free from the arduous labors of war, being 
exempt from military service. They also enjoyed the privi- 
lege of not being under the jurisdiction of the tribunal of 
the Inquisition; and in the celebrated code, Legislacion de 
IndiaSj many benevolent dispositions appear in favor of the 
Indians which greatly reduced their liability to the death 
penalty. 



58 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

So far as economic conditions were concerned, the Indians 
were far above all the rural populations of the world except 
the English colonists of North America. The Indian re- 
ceived from the authorities representing the village in which 
he was a dweller, land equivalent to seven and one-half 
hectares, which he was to cultivate in the capacity of life- 
owner. He could pasture his individual herds in communal 
lands, and he also had the right to cut whatever timber he 
needed from the hills for firewood and building purposes. 
He could also obtain permission to exploit these timber 
lands, and was permitted to keep the proceeds of any sales 
he might make. In return for these privileges the Indian 
was expected to make certain contributions to the public 
fund, which all historians agree to have been insignificant, 
and to furnish a certain quantity of seeds. 

Under such a mild, paternal organization, one which 
might be readily envied by the rural inhabitants of any part 
of the world except the colonists of North America, the 
Indian would have lived in a bed of roses if the climate 
had been other than it was. 

In the abstract, agricultural lands cannot be said to be 
either rich or poor or to figure in the economic problem; 
climatic conditions will be the key-note of their fertility. 
For the intellectual as well as for the ignorant Mexican, it 
suffices that land be unusually fertile to be described as 
marvellously rich. Now, marvellously rich lands are those 
which lend themselves to continual, or almost continual, 
cultivation, assuring a large profit for the owner. Agri- 
culture, besides fertile land, demands water, heat, light, 
favorable winds, electricity and magnetism. 

In Mexico all the favorable conditions except water are 
to be found; otherwise, even with a regular rainfall, the 
Mexican lands could not have reached the degree of exploi- 
tation that their fertility made possible. Agriculture draws 
its necessary water supply from snow that is absorbed by 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 59 

the earth; from streams that intersect the lands; from 
showers that gently nourish; from an average rainfall in all 
the months of the year; from two rainy seasons in the same 
territory; from a single rainy season, covering a given area 
of territory, at different times of the year, in different sec- 
tions. In Mexico the most unfavorable of all conditions 
prevails — one rainy season a year, short and irregular, and 
embracing the entire Mexican territory. 

Few persons understand the moral effect that this un- 
favorable condition has had upon the work and the progress 
of the nation. The planter, be he proprietor or laborer, 
must have land that lends itself to cultivation during the 
entire farming year; that is, three hundred days, or at least 
three- fourths of the farming year. And when it is a ques- 
tion of the alimentation of human beings and of the raising 
of products suitable for the manufacture of fabrics for 
clothing, it is evident that the tiller of the soil can do so 
to advantage only when he can work it for the greater part 
of the year. 

As Mexico has but one rainy season of four months the 
nation had inevitably to fall under the scourge of this re- 
stricted food production. An agriculture destined to carry 
a nation into the first ranks of civilization must be an agri- 
culture capable of producing a variety of food products. As 
corn, however, is almost exclusively the food of the greater 
part of the Mexican people, it must necessarily follow that 
they aim to make the most of the one short, irregular rainy 
season for its cultivation. And as this cultivation, what- 
ever may be the time it lasts in the temperate and cold 
lands, does not afford the owner or the laborer more than 
from one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty 
working days, it follows that the great agricultural popula- 
tion of Mexico, which at one time was made up exclusively 
of the aboriginal race, can count for its laboring class only 
upon one hundred and twenty working days a year at the 



6o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

most, and for its proprietor class upon one hundred and 
twenty business days. What can this working population 
do to support itself, or to progress with its work, during 
the two-thirds of the year it is forced to be idle? Plant 
other products? How irrigate them? No, as I have 
already said, as Mexico has no snow-covered lands, no two- 
fold rainy season, no average rainfall during all the year, 
not even a long rainy season of seven or eight months, the 
population engaged in the corn-raising industry is obliged 
to suspend field work for eight months of the year, even 
though they may not be consecutive. 

Could this agricultural population at any time have dedi- 
cated itself to industrial pursuits during the time it could 
not work in the fields? No, because Mexico is not, nor has 
it ever been, an industrial nation. The only industry that 
flourished during the Colonial epoch was the mining in- 
dustry, and this, according to Baron Humboldt, afforded 
work to only 30,000 men. Could this agricultural popula- 
tion have taken up extensive cattle raising? No, because 
in the agricultural region, properly so called, the stubble 
grazing lands are bad for cattle. The winds in the foot- 
hills, coming generally from the north and traversing the 
immense hot, dry deserts, gradually lose their humidity, and 
when they reach the central plateau, their hygrometric de- 
gree, already quite low, makes them act as huge evaporating 
machines which draw the moisture from the ground and 
scorch the pastures. The cattle of the central plateau are 
obliged to graze during eight months of the year in parched 
and burnt pastures of an inferior quality under which 
they degenerate notably, presenting a miserable, sickly 
appearance. On the other hand, the number of workers 
employed even in extensive cattle raising is very small in 
comparison with the number required for extensive agricul- 
ture. 

Neither could the agricultural population, idle during 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 6i 

two-thirds of the year, transform itself into merchants, con- 
sidering that it represents eighty-five per cent of the total 
population. Not being able to turn to manufacturing, cat- 
tle raising, commerce or even fishing — for the death-dealing 
climate has swept the waters of our shores clean of almost 
all piscine life — this unfortunate agricultural population has 
found itself obliged to resign itself to two calamities: 
live for the entire year upon the earnings of one hundred 
and twenty days' work, and submit to a life of idleness, 
fulfilling the sentence of the well-known Spanish proverb: 
"La ociosidad es la madre de todos los vicios" (Idleness is 
the mother of all vices) . It is the climate that has made the 
Indian lazy, apathetic, lethargic, poor and vicious. 

Moreover, nature has not only heavily handicapped 
Mexico in the matter of rainfall and wind currents, but it 
has imposed still another stupendous handicap. The high 
central plateau is surrounded by mountains which keep 
it at a varying altitude of from between 2,000 and 2,200 
meters above the sea level, excepting in the Bajio region, 
which is over 120 kilometers in length. The annual rain- 
fall in- the central plateau is excellent, as total annual pre- 
cipitation, and, as I have already mentioned, meteorological 
observations embracing the past fifty years only note one case 
of minimum precipitation of 300 millimeters; the maximum 
is from 800 to 900 millimeters, and the mean equals those 
of the most fertile districts of France. From this volumin- 
ous quantity of water, shed upon these immense mountain 
ranges that surround the central plateau, mighty rivers 
ought to spring, which, flowing through the foot-hills and 
toward th^ north, once they had passed the Bajio, would 
fertilize the line of deserts from the Valle del Salado to 
the end of the Bolson de Mapimi. But it occurred to 
iMother Nature to place still another handicap upon the 
Mexicans — an abominable geological configuration. 

As a general thing, the mountain ranges, instead of shed- 



62 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ding the water received by the watersheds which touch the 
foot-hills, drink it with avidity, carrying it down to great 
depths, and finally ejecting it upon the rugged surface of 
the watersheds which unite the foot-hills with the coast. As 
these are narrow the result is that from the sides of the 
huge mountain chain streams jut forth which might be 
utilized for motor power, but which are not available for 
navigation or irrigation. 

As there are only three rivers in the foot-hills, the Atoyac, 
the Panuco and the Rio Lerma — called "Rio Grande" after 
it leaves the Laguna de Chapala — all for the most part 
insignificant in the higher lands, it is not possible to obtain 
irrigation or motor power, so indispensable in the agricul- 
tural problem, at low cost in the foot-hills. 

The populations that live upon wheat and corn must 
grind the grain in order to convert it into flour or pulp 
suitable for culinary purposes. The windmill has been the 
saving device of farming populations, but in Mexico, for 
reasons well known to the real student of economics, wind- 
mills have not given satisfaction; the self-evident proof 
being that their use has not spread, although they have 
been known since the time of the Spanish Conquest and 
were for Mexican agriculturists of great and urgent neces- 
sity. This failure to generalize the use of the windmill has 
kept the aborigines wedded to the calamitous mistake of 
turning the mother of the family into a corn-grinding ma- 
chine. The process of reducing to pulp corn that has been 
soaked in hot water and softened in lye water, a purely me- 
chanical labor which at best ought not to take more than a 
quarter of an hour if done by a mill, consumes eight hours 
or more, reducing the woman to the level of a beast of 
burden and depriving the home of a revenue equal to one- 
half a day's wages. The woman grinds corn all the year 
and loses in the three hundred days of arduous work the 
equivalent of one hundred and fifty days' wages; that is to 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 63 

say, she loses more than the Indian makes in the whole year 
cultivating corn, which affords only one hundred and twenty 
working days. In the event that windmills are not used, 
an agricultural people can turn to motor power, not of 
falls, but of river currents applied to mills. These can be 
built on both banks of a river and along its entire length, 
wherever the current is sufficient to produce the power. 
But as Mexico lacks rivers as well, it would seem that 
nature has denied to this farming nation all of the power- 
ful assets that would assure its well-being and advancement. 
With the assured rainfall, the winter snows and other 
advantages common in England, France and Belgium, and 
in the greater part of Germany, Hungary and Poland, 
Mexico would have raised the aboriginal race to a consid- 
erable height, albeit it is — with all due respect to other 
opinions — an inferior race. China, peopled by an inferior 
race, possesses flourishing agriculture, and the condition of 
its enormous population is satisfactory. Mexico, with the 
rainfall conditions that prevail in France, would have at- 
tracted a large percentage of white immigrants, who by 
intermarriage would have modified the Mexican race, and 
Mexico at the present time would be a nation of 50,000,- 
000 or 60,000,000 inhabitants, rich, educated, happy; its 
strength an ample guarantee that the United States would 
never attempt to dispute its sovereignty, and that no Ameri- 
can President would ever dare, as Mr. Wilson has dared, 
in the guise of a socialist apostolate, to amuse himself 
with its very existence and civilization. As I have demon- 
strated, a country, which on account of its physical condi- 
tions can only afford work for the majority of its inhabitants 
for one-third of the year, must be a poverty-stricken coun- 
try. The total production of the 15,000,000 Mexicans, on 
a general average and for a single year, is $20 per inhabit- 
ant; the production of a Cuban, not a model of industry, 
almost reaches $100 a year; the average German, the type 



64 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

of the first-class workman, produces $400 a year. If Luis 
Cabrera, the brains of the Mexican revolution, as his friends 
have called him, has said: "La RevoluciSn es la Revo- 
lucion" (A revolution is a revolution), one may rightfully 
answer "La Ciencia es la Ciencia" (Science is Science). 
This will not be scoffed at by the revolution, and will 
deal the Mexican nation its death blow, unless saved by 
the apparition of almost supernatural Mexicans. 

It is unreasonable to attribute the misery of the indige- 
nous race to a determinate social class, which in no sense 
ever constituted a government; to a group of educated men, 
such as the so-called Cientificos; to a handful of plutocrats, 
more or less piratical financiers; to a dictator of genuine 
merit, such as General Porfirio Diaz, or to a detestable 
dictator, such as General Victoriano Huerta. Mexico's 
greatest drawback is to be found in the unfortunate physical 
conditions which have created the vices, the weakness and 
the dejection of its people. It is regrettable that it should 
have occurred to a man of President Wilson's qualifications 
to attempt lightly to solve the problem of life or death for 
a nation with no more reliable data than stupid newspaper 
stores, the theories of wise coxcombs, the diatribes of dema- 
gogues, the hypocritical declamations and wild howls of the 
bandits and of the incompetent or mercenary American 
agents or consuls, paid to deceive the Sage of the White 
House and the American people. 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE INFERIORITY OF THE 
INDIGENOUS RACE 

Notwithstanding the drawbacks of the Mexican climate, 
the aboriginal race might have advanced, might even have 
claimed a first place among the nations of the world, if it 
had not been an inferior race. The wonderful Mexican 
lands would have yielded incalculable commercial wealth if 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 65 

the disadvantages presented by the climate — even in the cen- 
tral plateau — owing to the irregular rainfall, had been over- 
come by irrigation. Why did not the aborigines dedicate 
themselves after the Conquest to obtaining water for their 
marvellous lands? Ignorant and severe critics of the Colon- 
ial Government have replied with emphasis: Because the 
Roman Catholic clergy obliged the aborigines to devote only 
the strictly necessary time to agriculture; that is, the time 
necessary to provide themselves with food, making therh de- 
vote the rest to building churches and convents. This view 
has not failed to color the opinions of even intelligent Mexi- 
cans and those, in fact, of all Latin-Americans. It is at the 
door of the Catholic Church, then, that the misery of the 
indigenous race is to be laid. For men of science this opin- 
ion is ridiculous and worthless. In the census made by the 
Spanish Government in 1793; in the third volume of Dr. 
Mora's excellent work, Mexico y sus Revoluciones; and in 
the statistical note of the celebrated liberal leader, Don Mig- 
uel Lerdo de Tejada, the total cost of all the churches and 
convents is estimated at 300,000,000 pesos silver, at a time 
when this equaled more than 300,000,000 pesos gold. In 
the three centuries covered by the Colonial regime there 
were 90,000 working days, and it would have sufficed for 
22,200 Indians, working at a minimum wage of fifteen cents 
per day, to have built during that period all the churches 
and convents that were to be found in New Spain at the 
time of the Declaration of Independence. The Colonial 
population of 2,000,000, existing after the Conquest, and 
the 3,500,000 indigenous population, existing in 1803, are 
included in the Colonial population of 5,000,000 designated 
by Baron Humboldt. Therefore, during the three hundred 
years of the Colonial regime, there was an average of 
550,000 adult Indians who were able to work. Deducting 
the number needed by the clergy for the construction of 
churches and convents, and even duplicating this number, 



66 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

there remained 500,000 men who could have devoted them- 
selves to agriculture during the three hundred days of the 
farming year: to corn-raising for one hundred and twenty 
days, and to the construction of irrigation plants during the 
remaining one hundred and eighty days. 

The labor of 500,000 Indians for 180 days each year for 
300 years, at twenty-five cents gold per day, represents a 
working capital of 6,700,000,000 pesos gold. According to 
the calculations of the Department of Fomento, published 
in 1909, 1,600,000,000 pesos silver, or 800,000,000 pesos 
gold, devoted to the development of irrigation works, would 
suffice to insure a production sufficient to abundantly feed a 
population of 25,000,000. It would have sufficed, then, if 
72,500 Indians had devoted 180 days a year for 300 years to 
irrigation work to have amply assured a prosperous existence 
to 25,000,000 Mexicans. 

The fifth part of the 500,000 Indian workmen — which 
was the average during the Colonial period — would have 
sufficed to construct irrigation works which would have 
been adequate to meet the needs of a population of 25,000,- 
000, and to build churches and convents at the rate of sixty 
per cent more than those they built. By sending I0,000 
of their companions to work in the mines, shifting these 
gangs each week and assuming the responsibility of their 
support, their earnings of seventy-five cents gold per day 
(the sum paid at that time to a pickman) could have been 
accumulated, thus enabling the Indians to eventually collect 
enough money to obtain everything necessary to undertake 
and successfully carry out some system of irrigation, I say 
everything necessary advisedly, because thty could have em- 
ployed the best Spanish engineers, who would have charged 
them far less than that horde of lawyers — for the most part 
scoundrels — who looked after the interests of the Indians and 
who were the initiators of absurd litigations, artfully pro- 
longed in order to despoil their unfortunate clients. 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 67 

The Indians were well aware that irrigation was the only 
possible means to overcome the natural deficiency of the 
water supply, as they had helped in the construction of many 
of the irrigation works, some of them very important, such 
as the famous dam of the Arroyo Zarco, built by the Jesuits 
on one of their plantations. It will be seen, then, that the 
failure of the aboriginal race to progress in agriculture, at 
the same rate that the Chinese, the Dutch and the Swiss 
have progressed, is due to the fact that it is an inferior race. 

The Church, and also the Spanish and creole landown- 
ers, built great irrigation plants on their properties. All 
wheat, with the exception of a very insignificant amount, that 
has been cultivated in Mexico from the Colonial period to 
the present time, has been raised by means of irrigation. 
And the wheat crop equals the fourth part of the corn crop. 

The landowners and the friars, notwithstanding their 
backwardness, their love of routine, their unscientific meth- 
ods, their lack of interest in agriculture and their indiffer- 
ence to the public good, managed to irrigate a great portion 
of the arable lands. They did not include the corn-raising 
lands because the majority of the popvdation, possessors of 
equally valuable lands, were engaged in corn-raising and, be- 
ing as free to sell their products as the Spaniard and the 
Creole, and able to live more abstemiously than the latter, 
it was not a paying investment for them to sink great sums 
of money in irrigation plants, when their competitors were 
willing to dispose of their crops at a much lower figure than 
they were able to quote. 

It may be urged that the Indians were not properly di- 
rected. That is no doubt true. But upon whom was it in- 
cumbent to direct them? The Government? This was not 
the epoch in which the Spanish Government, much less the 
Colonial, busied itself about agricultural studies, about try- 
ing to instruct a population which could not read by means 
of pamphlets, books or newspapers. But the Colonial Gov- 



68 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ernment did do for the aborigines what it was bound to do 
in conformity with the political and administrative tenets of 
the time, and that was to leave the Indians perfectly free to 
administer their affairs through their village authorities. The 
English colonists in North America did not receive scien- 
tific instruction, direction or subsidies from the local or cen- 
tral government; they progressed under their own efforts 
and initiative simply because they belonged to a superior 
race. The Mexican Indians were not able to do this be- 
cause they belong, according to the decrees of natural history, 
ethnology, general history and sociology, to an inferior race, 
slow to develop and progress along the lines of civilization. 
In fine, the Mexican indigenous race owes its abject condi- 
tion to itself, and, consequently, its future is dark, inasmuch 
as it has blindly plunged into the abyss, tricked by false and 
unenlightened leaders. 

THE VAMPIRES THAT PREYED ON THE ABORIGINAL RACE 

It may be well now to examine how much of truth there 
is in the oft-repeated assertion of the rapacious exploitation of 
this interesting aboriginal race by the Spanish conquerors 
and their creole descendents. According to the critics, his- 
torians, philanthropists, liberators and reformers, political 
poets and poets of politics, those responsible for the civil ex- 
ploitation of the aborigines have been the following: The 
Spanish plutocracy, which, during the Colonial period, en- 
joyed a monopoly in Mexico of the sale of merchandise of 
Spanish manufacture, and of foreign manufacture adapted 
to Spanish tastes; the clergy, regular and secular, in its 
most corrupt period, when the great revolution of the 
Protestant Reformation was hurled against it ; the landhold- 
ers and the creole military leaders, generally dictators. The 
burden of the song of the revolutionists has been that all the 
misfortunes of the Indians, capable of wringing tears from 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 69 

the eyes of a crocodile, can be laid at the door of their tra- 
ditional enemies: the plutocratic retail merchants of the 
Colonial period; the clergy; the landholder and the army. 

In point of fact, almost none of the great Mexican for- 
tunes was amassed by agriculture, even though their pos- 
sessors were landholders, and few owe their origin to min- 
ing. Almost all came from the retail trade of the pluto- 
cratic merchants who had the monopoly of the outside com- 
merce of New Spain, selling their wares at an advance of 
five hundred per cent on the original cost. It cannot be de- 
nied that this class was well versed in the art of draining the 
pockets of the colonists and transferring their gold to their 
own coffers. But the truth is that all the inhabitants of 
New Spain, except the natives themselves, were more or less 
the victims of the cupidity of the plutocratic retail merchants. 

There was only one way of being exploited by those who 
enjoyed the monopoly of outside commerce, and that was by 
using articles of Spanish or foreign manufacture. The In- 
dian's chief articles of consumption were corn, beans, pep- 
pers, salt and water, and as a beverage a species of rum 
{aguardiente) and pulque, the well-known drink extracted 
from the maguey. None of these articles was of either Span- 
ish or foreign manufacture, nor were heavy duties imposed 
to protect foreign manufacturers. The Indian clothed him- 
self in an unbleached cotton fabric (mania), and as Mex- 
ico from the time of the Aztecs produced cotton as an in- 
digenous product at a very low price — lower than in any 
other part of the world — this was a domestic product. The 
Indians were always very skillful in weaving cotton stuffs 
at home, and Spain never forbade or restricted this labor. 
They wore palm hats made by the Indians; leather sandals 
(huaraches) made by the Indians from native hides; used 
stone grinding blocks (metates) chiseled by the Indians from 
native stone; earthen griddles (comales), made by the In- 
dians of the ordinary native clay; slept on straw mats 



70 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

(petates) woven by the Indians from the Mexican tule plant. 
Their houses or huts were built of sun-baked bricks (adobes) , 
the doors and roofs were of Mexican wood, hewn, sawed and 
fashioned by the constructor himself, in which no window 
glass, latches, hinges, or any other articles of foreign manu- 
facture whatsoever were to be found. And it is well to add 
that there were no Colonial taxes, direct or indirect, upon 
any of the articles that have been mentioned or for their 
manufacture. This supposed exploitation of the Indian by 
the Spanish plutocratic retail merchant class, which in reality 
was bent upon getting the most out of the work and capital 
of the colonists, is humbug. 

The accusers of the Spanish and Creoles charge the clergy 
with having exploited the Indians in the following manner; 

First, by charging them tithes, the first-fruits of their 
farms and herds, and parochial perquisites consisting of fees 
for baptisms, confirmations, marriages and funerals. 

Second, by enkindling the natural fanaticism of the Indians 
to induce them to expend their savings and even go in debt 
in order to make offerings to the Church of various articles, 
especially wax candles, on the patronal feast of the village or 
the plantation. In Holy Week, at Christmas and on the 
feasts of All Saints and All Souls. 

I am not going to discuss the conduct of the Church from 
a theological, moral, canonical, humanitarian, or, in gen- 
eral, sociological aspect ; but I shall say that if there was any- 
thing reprehensible In the conduct of the Church, It was not 
especially directed against the Indians, nor were such wrongs 
especially invented to exploit them. The Catholic Church 
was an institution, as It continues to be, of an universal char- 
acter, and just as she treated the Indians has she treated the 
black, yellow and white races which have been subject to 
her. It is not possible to make a specific charge against the 
Church with regard to the Indians, nor to say that they suf- 
fered more at her hands than the Catholics of other races or 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 71 

other nations. If the Indian allowed himself to be exploited 
by the Church he did only what all other rural peoples, what 
all men, if we come to that, did in the Ages of Faith. The 
Indian was a man and, as such, subject to the powerful re- 
ligious sentiment, carried to the point of fanaticism, which 
characterized all peoples in that period when the form of 
government was markedly theocratic. This question is not 
of individual application but essentially general, comprising 
all races, religions and clergies. The Aztec sacerdotal body 
exacted of the Indians heavier contributions and more ardu- 
ous labors, under pain of harsher punishment, than the Catho- 
lic clergy ever did. 

If the Indian himself did not consider that a wrong was 
done him by the Church, it seems hardly necessary to take 
up this point. If we grant that the Indian had the capacity' 
to become a Catholic, and as a Catholic had liberty of con- 
science within the Church, no one has a right to censure 
him if he sacrificed all he had for the Church he loved, just 
as we approve, applaud and extol a man who gives every- 
thing, even life itself, for the glory and defense of his coun- 
try. To the believer, country cannot come before God, and 
it is unethical, idiotic and incongruous to assert that the man 
who sacrifices everything to his God is to be censured and the 
one who sacrifices everything to his country is to deserve the 
undying homage of posterity. No one has ever held that a 
legitimate government does wrong in exhorting its subjects 
to sacrifice everything for their country, preferring its ex- 
altation to their own private interests. The Church, viewed 
from the religious standpoint, is the fatherland of the soul, 
and has, in the eyes of the faithful, the infallible and eternal 
sovereign right of exacting all manner of sacrifices, even the 
sacrifices of all one's earthly possessions. 

The Colonial Government did not exploit, nor did it per- 
mit the bureaucracies to exploit, the Indian villages. For 
them the exchequer had neither claws nor hooks, nor confis- 



72 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

cations by means of direct or indirect taxes. In fact, the 
Colonial exchequer was benign in its treatment of the In- 
dian, so benign, indeed, that even after one hundred years 
of independence the Indians of the state of Oaxaca, the most 
numerous, compact and unmixed race that exists in the coun- 
try, still pay the Colonial tribute with pleasure and scrupu- 
lous punctuality. 

The critics of the Colonial regime point to the landhold- 
ers, or rather to the great planters in general, as the in- 
satiable exploiters of the natives. Without entering exten- 
sively into the question, I shall, however, say that the Indians 
subject to the plantation owners — ^while Mexico was still 
New Spain — constituted a small minority as compared to 
the independent Indians who resided in their villages. Con- 
sequently, it cannot be said that the plantation owners tyran- 
nized over the native race, because the majority of that race 
was outside their jurisdiction. The most that can be said of 
the planters is that during the Colonial period and during 
that of independence, down to 1857, they tyrannized over a 
minority of the natives. 

THE REAL EXPLOITERS OF THE INDIANS 

The implacable despoilers of the Indians were the "gov- 
ernors" of the Indian villages, and in this respect condi- 
tions have not changed up to the present time. The Colonial 
Government, however, was always on the alert, as we shall 
presently see. When there had been a series of good crops, 
the Indian, in order to establish an individual business, de- 
voted himself to raising fowls and hogs, sheep and asses; 
bought one or two cows and even some goats; sold eggs, but- 
ter, cheese, lard, dried salt meat, sausage, cracknel and other 
products. The Colonial Government, seeing that he was 
being literally robbed by the Creoles, mestizos and even by 
cunning Indians, ordered that the governor of the village 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 73 

should supervise all commercial transactions and approve 
only those which in his estimation were honest and legiti- 
mate. This, however, only added to the evil. The gov- 
ernors leagued with the unscrupulous trader, and became 
in the end the most pitiless of the Indian's despoilers. It 
should be mentioned that the governor had to be chosen 
from among the Indians of the village he governed; there- 
fore, it follows that the Indians were wantonly robbed by 
their own. In other words, the Indian was the despoiler 
of the Indian. 

Aware that this infamous state of affairs existed, the 
Colonial Government resolved to put a check upon the na- 
tive governors by appointing Creole or mestizo lawyers, 
called "protectors of the Indians," whose duty was to watch 
and restrain the Indian governor. But history repeats itself. 
The vigilant lawyer and the astute governor combined forces, 
and the unfortunate Indian was literally stripped. It is evi- 
dent, then, that the Indian himself, in league with the creole 
and the mestizo, was the greatest exploiter of the majority 
of the Indians and, consequently, the most expert despoiler 
of the indigenous race. In the year 1871, when the railroad 
from the City of Mexico to the port of Vera Cruz was being 
built, the English engineers and contractors were surprised 
to find that they could not hire native labor in the state of 
Oaxaca and in parts of that of Vera Cruz, without going first 
to the cacique (chief) of the village, legally known as 
Municipal President. This vampire contracted for one hun- 
dred, two hundred or more workmen at the rate of seventy- 
five cents gold a day. At the end of the week he received 
the pay for the men and gave them only one-half, so the 
Indian in reality received only thirty-seven and one-half 
cents per day. This conduct, worthy of a Turk or a Kaffir, 
was known to the Indians, because the construction com- 
pany took pains to enlighten them, even spreading broad- 
cast printed circulars stating that the company was paying. 



74 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

and would pay, to all workmen employed by them seventy- 
five cents gold per day. But, notwithstanding the fact that 
they knew the contents of this circular, and that they had 
the support of this powerful company, as well as that of 
the local and Federal press, and the protection of an Indian 
President, Benito Juarez, the Indians did not disavow the 
authority of their caciques, but supinely allowed themselves 
to be mercilessly robbed. A race that submits to such out- 
rages, and looks upon them as acts of an authority that is to 
be revered and respected, is a race that promises to be as slow 
to yield to the advances of civilization as rocks are to the 
action of the ocean. 



EVERY ONE AGAINST THE INDIAN 

The planters have been accused of treating their Indian 
servants with haughtiness and disdain. It is true, but what 
the accusers conceal is that the bureaucrats, political and 
non-political, have ever accorded the same treatment to the 
Indian. It is only the demagogues who love, venerate, exalt 
and protect them in their harangues, when they think it will 
help to secure their votes or obtain universal applause, 
bringing them favorably before the public and making 
them feared by the Government. Even the most ragged, 
unwashed, vicious loafer of the cities assumes an air of su- 
periority and the tone of a potentate toward the unfortu- 
nate Indian. The best proof that all Mexico looks upon the 
Indian as an inferior, is that every one addresses him in the 
familiar form of "tu" (which expresses confidence and affec- 
tion when addressed to an equal, but condescension when 
directed toward an inferior), and that every one orders him 
about as though he were a slave. This attitude of imaginary 
superiority is not found exclusively among the Mexican Cre- 
oles and mestizos, but in every part of Latin-America where 
there are domesticated Indians. We do not have to go 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 75 

further back than forty years to find the time when a popu- 
lation was divided into "gentes de razon" (rational beings) 
and Indians; and at the present time the population of mes- 
tizos is designated "gentes de razon," in counter distinction 
to the Indians. 

The Indians know full well that all — Creoles, mestizos, 
rich and poor, honorable and dishonorable — have trampled 
on them in the past, are trampling on them at present, 
and propose to do so in the future. That is why the leaders 
of the movement to restore the Indian to his proper sphere, 
all of them full-blooded Indians, have proclaimed a caste 
war to the point of extermination against mestizos and 
whites, as did the negroes of Santo Domingo. The terrible 
bandit chief of the Sierra de Alica, a full-blooded Indian 
and the idol of the Indians of the Nayarit, in his declara- 
tion of December, 1873, when he took command of his army 
of 18,000 men, reminded them that in order that their race, 
the indigenous race, should recover all its dignity, all its 
honor, all its lands, all its wealth and fulfill the Indian 
ideal, it was indispensable that in the confines of all the vast 
Mexican territory there remain not a single living man other 
than the Indian. These same ideas have been revived in 
1 914 and 19 1 5 by the Zapata press, and in the Convention of 
Aguascalientes and in that of the City of Mexico, by the 
full-blooded Indian leaders, who have told their comrades 
that those who propose to guide Indians should not have a 
drop of foreign blood in their veins. All that herd — in 
which, of course, there are some notable exceptions — of 
Creole and mestizo agitators, self-appointed saviours of the 
race, would be annihilated by the Indians if they obtained 
the ascendency, and they would richly deserve it, as it is to 
this venal class that the Indian owes most of his great mis- 
fortunes. 



76 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

THE REVOLUTIONARY LEGEND OF THE LANDHOLDERS 

Various elements have contributed to the growth in the 
Mexican public mind of the fable of a luxurious landholding 
class, gross oppressors of the rural people, or, more correctly, 
of what has lately become the fad — the indigenous race. 
Among these may be counted, the voraciousness of the 
bureaucracy, the ignorance of the newcomers, the chagrin of 
the defeated, the visions of patriots and the illusions of 
students. 

Landholders of this type existed in the early Colonial 
period — landholders such as the Conde del Valle de Oriza- 
ba, who owned seventy-seven plantations in the central pla- 
teau, and the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo, who 
owned 1,000,000 hectares in the section which is now com- 
prised by the states of Durango and Coahuila. But the 
concentration of arable lands into great plantations has al- 
most entirely disappeared. The present planter's land is 
made up of from second- to fourth-rate grazing ground, 
bare mountains and stretches of arid desert. One of the 
Mexican planters of this latter type is the famous Don Luis 
Terrazas. He undoubtedly possessed 6,000,000 hectares of 
land in the state of Chihuahua, but only 4,000 hectares of 
this was arable land. 

A Mexican planter, as a rule, possesses a minimum of 
arable land, a considerable tract of summer stubble grazing 
ground, some woodlands, a goodly collection of barren 
mountains and a great stretch of unimproved land, utterly 
worthless because of its inferior quality. This statement 
can be proved by absolutely indisputable facts. Not even ten 
per cent of the mountains are timbered, and the balance are 
either huge, naked rocks or are covered with a lifeless kind 
of growth that depresses rather than raises the spirits of 
the enterprising worker. 

Those 70,000,000 hectares of worthless lands, comprising 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 77 

a territory greater than the whole of France, have owners, 
and there are consequently in Mexico landholders whose 
assets equal naught. Proprietors of this description cannot 
be said to be a hindrance to the indigenous, or any other 
race, their only office being apparently to serve as targets 
for the shots of the agitators who constantly point them out 
as the rapacious plunderers of the marvellous lands belong- 
ing to the Mexican people. 

Don Jose Lorenzo Gossio, a sincere and self-denying 
friend of the indigenous race, and a professed partisan of the 
division of land, in his treatise on rural lands in Mexico, 
published in 191 1, says: "It is true that the people lack land, 
but it is false to say that it is due to the great concessions 
of the Colonial period. 

"To demonstrate this I give, in appendix No. i, a list of 
some of the ancient landowners, and it can be stated that 
scarcely one of their descendents has at the present time 
any interest in them. . . . 

"This dismemberment of the land has been due mainly to 
partial sales and testamentary successions, but there have 
been other causes which have influenced the subdivision on a 
greater scale."^ 

After enumerating the causes that influenced the subdi- 
vision of the lands that were possessed by individuals, 
Senor Cossio declares that the monopoly of property was re- 
established by the dictatorship of General Diaz. He says: 
"But more especially the monopolistic and property-rights- 
destroying policy of the Government has made pass into the 
hands of the few what was once enjoyed by the many."^ 

According to the data presented by Senor Cossio, whose 
treatise is entirely favorable to the revolutionary thesis, the 
Mexican Government from 1857 to 1906 came into pos- 

^ Jose Lorenzo Cossio, Como y for quienes se ha monopolizado 
la propiedad rustica de Mexico? pp. 5, 6, 7. 

2 Jose Lorenzo Cossio, Folleio, p. 32. 



78 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

session of 72,335,907 hectares. Of this 13,764,607 hectares 
were adjudicated according to the laws promulgated by Pres- 
ident Benito Juarez and former administrations. Senor 
Cossio has nothing to say about these as they were adjudi- 
cated to more than ten thousand claimants. He reserves 
his censure for the alienation by the Porfirio Diaz Govern- 
ment of more than 58,000,000 hectares which were distrib- 
uted almost gratuitously among twenty-eight of the Presi- 
dent's friends. With regard to this Senor Cossio has writ- 
ten: "It is for this reason that this law has been the one 
that has most profoundly affected the land problem; and it 
may be said that in great part it served to prepare the pres-.^ 
ent revolt, because it has once more monopolized the na- 
tional territory, despoiling the many to enrich the few."^ 

Senor Cossio submits the following official data concern- 
ing the survey of unclaimed lands made during the dictator- 
ship of General Diaz. 

States and territories luhich naere surveyed Hectares 

Chihuahua 14,612,366 

Baja California 11,604,584 

Sonora 3,216,394 

Durango 789,009 

Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango and Tamaulipas 5,214,306 - 

Chihuahua and Durango 1,043,099 

Chiapas 328,016 

Yucatan 251,878 

Tabasco 780,176 

Vera Cruz 45*856 

Sinaloa 45i98x 

Puebla 73ii73 

Oaxaca 60,701 

San Luis Potosi 12,543 

Guanajuato 5»i66 

Islas del Golfo de Cortes 164,098 

Total 38,247,346 

1 Jose Lorenzo Cossio, Folleto, p. 34. 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 79 

Resume 
Unclaimed lands surveyed in the northern states occu- 
pied by extensive mountain chains, immense deserts 
and from second- to fourth-rate summer stubble 

grazing ground, and scarcely any arable land 36,689,837 

In the warm zone 1,539,800 

In the temperate and cold zones i7>709 

Total 38,247,346 

The remainder of the lands surveyed up to the 58,000,- 
000 hectares present the same desolate appearance. The 
work was suspended in 1891, and the lands surveyed later 
were surveyed under concessions, with the results given in 
the foregoing table. 

Almost all the surveying has been done in the arid zone, 
comprising immense deserts, salt plains and gigantic moun- 
tains, where an insignificant minimum of workable land 
exists. Deducting from these surveyed lands some of the 
good territory of the temperate zone of the state of Chiapas, 
and those of the Yaquis in the state of Sonora, which occupy 
a small area of that state, there are not to be found in the 
much-talked-of 58,000,000 hectares of land snatched from 
the Mexican people by the covetousness of the mighty, even 
15,000 hectares of lands suitable for the cultivation 
of cereal and leguminous products. From the year 1840 
all the arable lands in the northern states had passed into 
the hands of the inhabitants of these states, who held them 
by legal titles or by that of prescription. It is true that 
General Diaz by his law of unclaimed lands, promulgated in 
favor of his friends, constituted great landholdings which 
were afterwards transferred by them to foreign enterprises. 
But these were composed of those lands which did not pro- 
duce food for the people and which could not be constituted 
into small holdings; neither could they be distributed among 
poor ranchers, because the summer stubble grazing ground 
of this section, smaller by far than the absolutely desert 



8o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

land, is under the ban of frequent and tremendous 
droughts which kill the cattle. To derive any profit from 
these, the investment of great capital would have been nec- 
essary in order to install hydraulic plants to overcome en- 
tirely, or at least in a measure, the natural deficiencies. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE LANDHOLDERS 

In the central plateau, where almost all the lands adapted 
to the cultivation and cereal and leguminous products are 
to be found, there are no landholders who could, to any great 
extent, injure the interests of the poor class, because the 
plantation that exceeds i,opo hectares of arable land is 
the exception. The following facts will amply bear this 
out. 

According to the carefully prepared statistics of the De- 
partment of Fomento, forty per cent of the total corn pro- 
duction is grown in Guanajuato, Jalisco and Michoacan, 
the joint area of which is 173,810 square kilometers, and 
deducting from these the mountains, ravines, the precipitous 
plains, the great lakes of Chapala, Patzcuaro and Cuitzeo, 
there remain 50,000 square kilometers for agriculture and 
cattle-raising. These three states, which produce forty per 
cent of all the corn available for the maintenance of the 
Mexican nation, comprise 1,114 plantations and 9,515 
ranches, according to Vol. IX, p. 495, of the General Sta- 
tistics of the Mexican Republic. 

The area of land suitable for cultivation or cattle raising 
represents sixty per cent of the available 50,000 square kilo- 
meters of the states we have under consideration; conse- 
quently, each of the 1,114 plantations has an average area of 
18 square kilometers or 1,800 hectares. And it must also be 
borne in mind that the summer stubble grazing ground pre- 
dominates over the arable land, bearing out what I have 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 8i 

said that it is an exception in the most fertile states of the 
Republic, which enjoy the most favorable rainfall conditions, 
to find plantations of more than i,ooo hectares. An aver- 
age area of 320 hectares may be approximately assigned to 
the 9,515 ranches located in these states. It cannot be said, 
then, that the situation in that part of the Republic which 
produces forty per cent of the corn consumed by the Mex- 
ican people is such as to inspire ra.ge and to call forth an- 
athemas against the landholders. What has been said of the 
plantations of this section is true of all those to be found 
south of the 22d parallel of north latitude. 



PRESIDENT WILSON S DOUBLE SCALES AND MEASURES 

President Wilson has thundered against the Mexican 
landholders, whose position has inspired his avowed parti- 
sanship for the revolutionists, a partisanship, however, which 
the President himself has not yet qualified as a hindrance or 
a help: "Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course 
we have pursued remains to be seen" (Address to Congress, 
December 7, 1915). 

President Wilson has said through the columns of The 
Saturday Evening Post: "It is a curious thing that every 
demand for the establishment of order in Mexico takes into 
consideration, not order for the benefit of the people of Mex- 
ico, the great mass of the population, but order for the bene- 
fit of the old-time regime, for the aristocrats, for the vested 
interests, for the men who are responsible for this very con- 
dition of disorder. No one asks for order because order 
will help the masses of the people to get a portion of their 
rights and their land; but all demand it so that the great 
owners of property, the overlords, the hidalgos, the men 
who have exploited that rich country for their own selfish 
purposes, shall be able to continue their processes undis- 



82 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

turbed by the protests of the people from whom their wealth 
and power have been obtained."^ 

"They want order — the old order; but. I say to you that 
the old order is dead. It is my part, as I see it, to aid in 
composing those differences so far as I may be able, that the 
new order, which will have its foundation on human liberty 
and human rights shall prevail."^ 

If President Wilson is the implacable adversary of the 
landholder, why has he not proceeded against the Cuban 
landholder, since his voice is heard in Cuba and his counsels 
are respected? Why has he not trained the masked and un- 
masked batteries of his political policy upon Cuba, instigat- 
ing a social revolution in case his admonitions are not 
heeded, shielding it with his powerful protection to the end ? 
There are still to be found in Cuba many families that 
possess good sugar-cane lands to the extent of 50,000, 100,- 
000 and even 200,000 hectares. There is no prospect that 
these will be diminished in size by testamentary deeds, which 
would subdivide them among numerous descendents, because 
powerful stock companies have been formed for the purpose 
of developing the sugar-cane industry upon a large scale. 
The Chaparra Sugar Company, an American corporation, 
possesses more than 80,000 hectares of good sugar lands. 
The press of Havana in December, 19 15, announced the 
formation of an Anglo-American Company with a capital of 
$50,000,000, which would hereafter dedicate itself to the 
sugar industry in the extensive territory it had acquired. 

On Monday, December 27, 1915, El Mundo, an Havana 
daily, stated that a Mexican named Rios had been denounced 
to the Cuban Department of the Interior as an inciter of 
the laboring classes against the capitalist, and further stated 
that Senor Hevia, the Secretary of the Interior, had resolved 
to take radical measures against the agitator. The follow- 

1 The Saturday Evening Post, Vol. 186, No. 47, May 23, 1914. 

2 Idem 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 83 

ing day El Heraldo, another Cuban journal, stated that 
Rios had called at its editorial offices saying that he was not 
an agitator, but simply a Mexican painter who had come to 
Cuba hoping to earn an honest living, which he had not been 
able to do in his own country. El Heraldo, although sus- 
taining the Cuban Government's policy of not admitting 
agitators, called attention to the advisability of resorting to 
rigorous measures only when guilt was proved or reasonable 
presumption of guilt existed. Doubtless, Mr. William Gon- 
zalez, the United States Minister to Cuba, would have con- 
gratulated President Menocal upon his intelligent and pa- 
triotic resolution to prosecute all agitators, who, it would 
seem, according to White House standards, should be per- 
mitted to carry out their nefarious trade undisturbed in 
Mexico only. 

I do not censure the Cuban landholder, or the monopoliz- 
ing American or Anglo-Saxon enterprises, and much less 
President Menocal, because he did what General Porfirio 
Diaz did with unerring judgment when he governed Mexico 
sanely. Even when the agitator is a son of the soil and 
absolute freedom of the press exists, it is the duty of the 
press to uphold the inviolability of law and order. There 
is nothing more destructive of this supreme social need than 
the sinister gospel of war unto death, in the name of ven- 
geance, between the rich and the poor; vengeance for cen- 
turies of suffering — an irrational revenge, because no one can 
prove that all the misfortunes that have come upon humanity 
have emanated from the aristocracy, any more than any one 
can reasonably deny that without this aristocracy humanity 
would have perished. 

Neither do I censure President Wilson's conduct with 
regard to Cuba. What I wish to do is simply to call atten- 
tion to a fact which will later help me to trace and define 
the real psychology of the President of the United States, 



84 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ANOTHER COLOSSAL LIE 

The Mexican people, foreigners, and especially President 
Wilson, have been given to understand that the great ma- 
jority of the indigenous race was deprived of its collective 
ownership of lands, known as municipal lands, in order that 
they might be distributed among the Inhabitants, thereby 
constituting them independent property owners; but that 
when this had been accomplished the great landholders, al- 
ways greedy for the best lands, and determined to keep the 
Indians in a position of servility, took advantage of their 
simplicity and, by paying them a mere pittance — a grave of- 
fence according to the Civil Code — literally robbed them 
of their share. Nothing can be further from the truth, and 
nothing has been more effective In arousing the sympathy 
and tricking the imagination of the ignorant. 

According to the statistics published by Dr. Mora in 1845, ' 
and confirmed. In 1856, by one of the most distinguished re- 
form thinkers, Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, there were 
at that time in Mexico 2,860 plantations and as many 
ranches. 

The following data are to be found In Vol. IX, p. 495, 
of the General Statistics compiled by the Mexican Govern- 
ment: 

Mexican Republic 

Cities 196 

Towns 469 

Villages 5,213 

Plantations 8,872 

Ranches 26,607 

Small ranches 2,469 

Hamlets 902 

Settlements 924 

Small farms 164 

Road stations 250 

Wayside provision stations 41 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 85 

The records of the Federal states show that 2,082 villages 
are still in existence which preserve their ancient title to the 
municipal lands which surround them, this violation of the 
law being covered by entering them as "for common dis- 
tribution," although they have not been touched for fifty- 
eight years. This demonstrates that, counting individual and 
collective property owners, there were 42,311 property 
owners in Mexico previous to the revolution of 1910. It is 
especially to be noted that there were 2,800 ranches in 1856, 
and 26,607 ill 1910. 

From whence was the land represented by this great in- 
crease in the number of ranches derived. From the un- 
claimed lands? In the statistics only 3,726 ranches are 
enumerated in the states where unclaimed lands existed pre- 
vious to 1856, and there is an increase of 23,000 to be ac- 
counted for. Were they taken from the big plantations? 
Some may thus have come into being, but as a general thing 
the plantation owners when they needed money mortgaged 
their properties, and in order to meet the mortgages pre- 
ferred to lose the whole than to subdivide it. On the other 
hand, as the majority of the plantation owners carried heavy 
mortgages, they could not sell a portion of their territory 
without the consent of their creditors, and this could rarely 
be obtained. And if the planters ever sold, voluntarily or 
by order of their creditors, they always sold at a high figure. 

The partisans of the Indians assert that the Indian prop- 
erty owners sold their lands at a ridiculously low figure ; but 
is it possible that, if lands of equal value were put upon 
the market, one at a high figure by the planter and the other 
at a low figure by the Indian, any one could be found who 
would pay an excessive amount for what he could buy at 
a ridiculously low price? 

Something still remains to be said on this subject. The 
planters have wrestled for centuries with the pretensions of 
the Indians, who constantly invaded their territories from 



86 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

their neighboring villages. The planter trembled before the 
shyster tribe that defended the Indians, and prolonged their 
cases interminably by all manner of chicaneries. The plan- 
tation that was in litigation with an Indian village depre- 
ciated in value and it was almost impossible to mortgage or 
sell it at an acceptable figure. 

The ranchman is a mestizo of the rough-rider type, gen- 
erally very brave and adventurous, revelling in danger, fear- 
ing neither Indians, lawyers, nor artifices. When the In- 
dians invade his premises, he receives them with a pistol, 
follows them with a dagger, destroys, at the head of a guer- 
rilla band, half of their villages, hangs the chief, pursues the 
Municipal President with the arm of the law, and generally 
terrorizes them. It is the ranchman of this type who as a 
general thing furnishes the material for those terrible guer- 
rilla fighters, and the Indian villages stand in wholesome 
dread of the ranchmen of the neighborhood. 

Most of the ranches which go to make up the total of 
the increase noted have come from land purchased at a 
paltry sum from the Indians, not by the planters but by the 
ranchmen. 

As a natural consequence of the laws of dismemberment 
of all property held in common, the Mexican Indian villages 
have decreased in size and importance, ranging as small 
ranches, hamlets and settlements in the last years of their 
existence. 

The statistics of the Department of Fomento confirm 
these facts. As the villages have deteriorated or disappeared 
altogether, the big and little ranches have increased. We 
have in fact: 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 87 

States and Territories Villages Ranches 

Nuevo Leon 4 1,040 

Aguascalientes 6 305 

CoHma 9 178 

Lower California, Southern District.... 19 396 

Sonora 71 664 

Sinaloa 228 i>7o8 

Chihuahua i8i ijT^S 

Coahuila 20 500 , 

Durango 106 780 

Tamaulipas 31 1,665 

San Luis Potosi 19 1,102 

Zacatecas 30 1,241 

Jalisco 182 3,713 

Tepic 60 654 

Guanaj uato 37 2,727 

Michoacan 228 3,076 

Queretaro 36 308 

Vera Cruz 183 762 

Tabasco 54 528 

Campeche 36 148 

Chiapas 105 399 

Total 1,645 23,678 

The following table gives the relative proportion between 
the villages and ranches, in the states where the former pre- 
dominate : 

States and Territories Villages Ranches 

Oaxaca 937 723 

Mexico 725 442 

Puebla 609 563 

Hidalgo 438 451 

Guerrero 313 122 

Yucatan 154 391 

Tlaxcala 125 198 

Federal District 17a 66 

Morelos 107 91 



Total 3,580 3,047 



88 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The foregoing tables demonstrate that the decline of the 
Indian villages has not given rise to the increase of large 
landholdings, as the agitators would have us believe, but that 
it has brought about the development of the ranches which 
represent the average smaller landholdings. 

Considered from this point of view, the startling assertion 
that the landholders appropriated for their benefit the lands 
which the Indians sold at a paltry sum when the Reform 
Revolution made them independent property owners, cannot 
be looked upon as anything but a lie. 

GROSS MISREPRESENTATION ABOUT THE STATE OF MORELOS 

Many lies concerning a despicable landholding class in the 
state of Morelos, whose oppressions of the inhabitants have 
justified this outburst of passion and vengeance, have been 
freely circulated, and it is my purpose, for the benefit of all 
honest and intelligent persons, to analyze and destroy them. 

The first to be attacked is the assertion that the state of 
Morelos is enormously rich. This fabrication is by no means 
modern ; it is the perennial fruit of the tree of undying Mexi- 
can vanity planted in the Colonial period. The area of the 
state of Morelos is 7,080 square kilometers, only one-tenth 
of which is suitable for cultivation. Morelos might lay claim 
to being enormously rich if ninety per cent of its territory 
was arable land and the remaining ten per cent unproduc- 
tive. As exactly the contrary is the case, truth seems to 
oblige us to say that Morelos is one of the poorest, instead 
of one of the richest, states in the Republic. To be exact it 
should be said that in the state of Morelos there are certain 
tracts, not very extensive, like the Canada of Cuernavaca 
and the Valle de Tetecala and that of Amilpas, which pos- 
sess rich lands. 

President Wilson, his confidential envoy, Mr. Lind, Mr. 
Bryan and other distinguished Americans, were deeply 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 89 

stirred when they heard that the state of Morelos was prac- 
tically owned by thirty-two planters, who richly deserved 
ruin and even death because of this great crime. Dividing 
the superficial area of the state of Morelos by thirty-two, we 
find that every planter would have an average of 22,000 
hectares of land. There are more than thirty-two planters 
in the Island of Cuba owning 22,000 hectares of land; but 
what is a virtue in Cuba, is a crime in Mexico, which calls 
for the attention of the President of the United States and 
the consecration of his best efforts to the promotion of a 
social revolution that is destroying the country. There is 
this notable difference between being a planter in Cuba and 
being a planter in the state of Morelos. I have read that 
in Cuba with 118 square kilometers of land one can pro- 
duce, not as the limit, but with considerable ease, 10,000,000 
tons of sugar per year, which, estimated in dollars, equals 
$1,000,000,000. The state of Morelos can only produce 
45,000 tons of sugar, not exceeding in value $5,000,000, 
which, divided among the thirty-two imaginary planters 
who have caused President Wilson so many sleepless nights, 
would amount to $156,000 for each as the gross receipts per 
year. 

However, the data which have raised Mr. Wilson's al- 
truism to a tension of one hundred thousand volts are false. 
The number of planters engaged in the cultivation of sugar- 
cane is forty-five; and what has been most artfully con- 
cealed from the honest friends of the native race is that, be- 
sides the plantations, there are ninety-one ranches, owned in 
great part by ranchmen; that is, by men of the common 
class, and composed of the lands which were given to the 
Indians at the time that the law of dismemberment of lands 
held in common went into effect, and which were sold by 
them at paltry sums. It is true that some of the Morelos 
planters bought lands from the Indians who voluntarily 
sold them, but it is also true that the majority of these 



90 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

lands passed into the hands of the ranchmen. And now, as 
they can no longer buy any lands from the Indians because 
there are none to be had, the ranchmen have initiated the 
revolution to get the land and water away from the planters, 
keeping the marrow and giving the bone to the Indian. It 
should be noted also, that in the rural districts of Morelos 
the Indians are controlled by the ranchmen, among whom 
there are many active revolutionary leaders, and the re- 
mainder are the avowed partisans of the spoliation of the 
planters. The state of Morelos has only 70,000 hectares of 
arable land, as has already been said, and of these only 
12,000 are devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane and rice: 
8,000 hectares to the former and 4,000 to the latter. All the 
rest is devoted to corn dry farming, which, however, is not 
done by the planter. The land is leased, the lessees being, 
as a rule, ordinary common people or ranchmen. 

The terms of lease are such as to make it available to all 
persons who understand agriculture, and the most elemen- 
tary economic principles. The lands in Morelos are semi- 
tropical, and the arable land is as a rule good and not as 
exhausted as the cold and temperate lands of the central 
plateau. For the lease by the year of a lot comprising 5 
hectares for the cultivation of corn by dry farming, which 
on an average produces 16 hectoliters per hectare, the 
farmer pays, instead of money, five loads, or ten hectoliters, 
of corn. In the five years previous to the revolution the 
price of a hectoliter of corn in Morelos, still in the hands 
of the harvester, was 3.50 pesos silver, so that the annual 
lease of 5 hectares was 35 pesos silver, or 7 pesos silver per 
hectare. 

In the region of the central plateau one hectare of good 
land for corn dry farming is estimated at 300 pesos silver; 
the price doubling in the Bajio and near the City of Mex- 
ico. When the Chapingo plantation, which is situated about 
forty kilometers from the City of Mexico, was dismem- 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 91 

bered the price set was from 4(X) to 600 pesos per hectare. 
The boundaries of the small state of Morelos join those of 
the Federal District, and Cuernavaca, its capital, is sixty- 
four kilometers from the City of Mexico. The yield of 
corn in the state of Morelos is double that of the Federal 
District, and 300 pesos per hectare for land suitable for dry 
farming in the state of Morelos is a low estimate. The price 
of a lot of 5 hectares, at the rate of 300 pesos per hectare, 
is 1,500 pesos silver, and the cost of the lease being 35 pesos 
per year, it follows that the lessee pays two and one-third 
per cent for land rent, a moderate amount if it is taken into 
consideration that the rate of interest on mortgages is six 
per cent, and from eight to ten per cent on bank loans. 

The stubble grazing lands in Morelos were leased by 
the planters previous to the revolution for ridiculously small 
amounts. 

It is self-evident from the foregoing facts that the labor- 
ing class in the state of Morelos is exclusively engaged in 
sugar-cane raising on the plantations, and previous to the 
revolution the day-wage was the highest paid in the whole 
of the Republic for agricultural work. 

THE HUNGER PROBLEM IN ITS TRUE ASPECT 

Why did the Indians rid themselves of the lands that 
were gratuitously divided among them by the laws of dis- 
memberment of 1856 and 1857? No one can say that the 
Indians were forced to do this through fear of the planters, 
or because they obliged them by coersive means to do so, 
because they possessed no power, the popular liberal party, 
which supported the Reform Revolution which ended in 
1867 with the execution of the Archduke Maximilian of 
Austria on the Cerro de las Campanas, having declared all 
the planters traitors for recognizing the Empire. It insulted 
them continually, deprived them of all power, subjected 



92 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

them to the orders of liberal governors, drawn from the 
ranks of the people, who went out of their way to heap 
humiliations upon them, treating them like pariahs. It was 
General Porfirio Diaz who established in Mexico the great 
conciliatory policy which delivered the wealthy class, and 
more especially the landholders, from the regime of perse- 
cution which they had suffered under the great majority of 
the "liberal heroes," a persecution which Benito Juarez 
always reprobated, but was never able to remedy. It was 
not until 1885 that General Diaz manifested this concilia- 
tory policy in any marked degree, and by then almost all 
the Indian property holders had sold their lands for a pitt- 
ance, not to the planter, but in the great majority of cases 
to the ranchmen. 

It has been claimed that this sale by the Indians of their 
lands is to be attributed to the fact that they are vicious, 
lacking in administrative ability and easily influenced by the 
clergy, who by means of tithes and contributions stripped 
them of the profits of their crops. 

The defender of the Indian, of course, fails to mention 
that vampire of the common class which preys upon the In- 
dian precisely in the state of Morelos. Here the planter 
demands 10 hectoliters of corn a year as the price of lease 
for 5 hectares of land; whereas the ranchmen, owners of 
small herds raised on lands rented to them by the 
planter at an exceedingly low figure, charge the poor In- 
dian farmer 12 loads of corn for the use of a j'^oke of oxen 
for only two months of the year. As the price of one load 
of corn is 7 pesos, the friend of the Indian fleeces him of 
84 pesos. This is paying rather high for one yoke of oxen 
for two months. The Indian undoubtedly is vicious, a poor 
administrator, but not to the point of parting with his land 
— the thing he most cherishes — and selling it for a paltry 
sum, if conditions are such that he can till it to advantage. 
The Indians of Xochimilco, Iztacalco and other points, the 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 93 

owners of the floating islands in the lakes of the Federal 
District known as the chinampas, although they are vicious, 
poor administrators and can be said to be still under the in- 
fluence of the clergy because they have never ceased to be 
devoted Catholics, have nevertheless held for centuries the 
monopoly of the vegetable trade of the City of Mexico. 
Even the consignments from the surrounding states, ren- 
dered necessary by the growth of the city, have not been 
able to compete with them. 

In the Federal District itself there are numerous Indians 
who are owners of lands which were once the beds of lakes. 
These lands possess considerable fertility and enjoy the most 
favorable rain conditions to be found anywhere in the Re- 
public. These Indians have not disposed of their lands 
and would repulse with horror any offer to buy them at 
any price. In the states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, 
Vera Cruz and Tabasco, independent Indian property own- 
ers are still to be found. They are devoted to the cultiva- 
tion of their land, although without doubt, owing to their 
moral and intellectual deficiencies, they do not derive the 
profit from them that they otherwise might. 

If the Mexican lands held by the inhuman landowners 
are so marvellously fertile, and if in addition the planter 
exploits the Indian by robbing him of his land and, conse- 
quently, of his means of livelihood, the Mexican planter 
ought to find himself perpetually in the position of a Croesus, 
with the credit of a Jewish plutocrat in the American and 
European banking world. Exactly the contrary is true. In 
general, the Mexican planter is of the type of dyspeptic 
whose digestion has been ruined by worry, and who is bur- 
dened with mortgages drawing ten, twelve and even eighteen 
per cent. The vision of poverty and a hut, more in keep- 
ing with his actual position than the fictitious palace that 
fervid imagination has conjured up, hovers over him. The 
agitators, instead of making a thorough study of the problem 



94 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

until they reached the absolute truth concerning the planters 
and the laborers, decided to destroy the prestige of the land- 
owners by saying that they were a set of imbeciles who 
allow themselves to be robbed to a scandalous degree by 
their overseers, and that they were guilty of the crime of 
burying national agriculture in the decaying shroud of 
routine. 

This is a demagogic diatribe, pure and simple, accepted 
by people possessed of reason but devoid of intelligence. 
The planters of Yucatan were poor as long as they confined 
themselves to the cultivation of products unsuitable to the 
conditions surrounding them; but once they discovered that 
their climate and lands lent themselves admirably to the cul- 
tivation of the henequen (sisal-hemp), they bent all their 
energies in that direction and have become the richest 
planters in the Republic, notwithstanding the fact that in 
the peninsula the ordinary regime is observed, overseers and 
their retinue, honest or otherwise, holding sway. The plant- 
ers of Morelos belonged for a long time to the "poor rich" 
fraternity, bearing the stigma of never having gotten out 
of the rut, because they were using the methods introduced 
by Hernan Cortes In their sugar refineries. The truth is 
that without railroads the bringing of machinery from 
Vera Cruz to Cuernavaca was too expensive, and the con- 
servative spirit of the planter still clung to the Colonial 
period. The introduction of railroads into Mexico fired his 
progressive spirit to such a degree that, before the revolt of 
1 910, the cultivation of sugar-cane, as well as the manu- 
facture of sugar, had reached the degree of perfection found 
in the most progressive sugar plantations of Cuba; and the 
planters became really rich, notwithstanding the fact that 
they were absentee landlords, leaving their plantations in 
the hands of overseers, who managed or mismanaged, as the 
case might be. 

The Mexican mortgage banks and banks of issue knew 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 95 

well that the only plantation owners who were rich and 
free, or comparatively free, of the burden of mortgages were 
those who possessed adequate irrigation facilities. Dry corn 
farming has proved ruinous in the long run to the Mexican 
farmer, and will eventually prove ruinous in the short run 
as well. 

When the Spanish King, Charles IV, decreed the aliena- 
tion of the property of the hospitals, asylums, confraterni- 
ties, charitable establishments, lay guardianships, houses of 
mercy and foundling asylums, existing in New Spain, it was 
discovered that the planters in general were completely 
ruined, because the total amount of their indebtedness to the 
Church, held in mortgages, was more than the total value 
of the plantations. In virtue of the exposition of these facts, 
made to the King by the Vice-Regal Government, the de- 
crees of the royal mandate of the 19th of September, 1798, 
were never carried into effect. The laws of June, 1856, 
and the subsequent Reform Code, which decreed the dis- 
memberment of Church property, relieved almost all the 
planters of the burden of these ecclesiastical mortgages, leav- 
ing their properties free. Fifty years later we find ninety 
per cent of the Mexican planters owing more than fifty per 
cent of the value of their plantations to the mortgage hold- 
ers, and about twenty to twenty-five per cent to the banks 
of issue. 

Taking into consideration the various undeniable facts I 
have presented, which, even in this isolated setting, prove 
beyond the possibility of doubt that in Mexico dry farming 
is a ruinous rather than a prosperous course, the conclusion 
must be deduced in the realm of politics or out of it, with 
the aid of bullets or without them, through President Wil- 
son's intervention or without it, that agriculture in the 
hands of the indigenous race will be as disastrous as it has 
been in the hands of the planter, because the causes of this 
disastrous failure are climatological phenomena, such as 



96 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

irregular rainfall, frosts and a constantly increasing unpro- 
ductiveness of the lands, exhausted by years of extensive cul- 
tivation. 

President Wilson and American thinkers who are inter- 
ested in Mexican affairs on account of American capital in- 
vested in that country do not seem to know that the much- 
talked-of division of lands is by no means an unheard-of 
thing, a new discovery, but a fact that was once accom- 
plished and which resulted in the most complete and dis- 
couraging fiasco. 

If almost all the independent Indian property owners sold 
their lands for a paltry sum, it was because they could not 
stand the repeated disasters that attend dry farming in 
Mexico — disasters due to absolutely natural causes quite in- 
dependent of politics. The planter engaged in dry farm- 
ing may reduce his expenses, forego all profits and the inter- 
est on his capital; he may live upon borrowed money, piling 
up debts at an enormous rate of interest which will finally 
reduce him to poverty. The poor Indian, however, notwith- 
standing the fact that he may own his land, cannot reduce 
his expenses, because the product of the land even in good 
years is not enough to enable him and his family to live 
otherwise than in the very meagre way in which they actu- 
ally live. 

INEVITABLE CONCLUSIONS 

The problem of feeding the people in Mexico and of neu- 
tralizing the terrible ravages of hunger had, up to 1910, 
only one rational solution — irrigation. It was the only 
means of saving and enriching the people, as irrigation 
would have considerably increased the extent of the arable 
lands. It would have given security to the crops raised in 
those sections where the fertility of the land permits of ex- 
tensive agriculture, and, above all, reclaimed that great por- 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 97 

tion of the arable land which is almost depleted, by permit- 
ting the introduction of the intensive method of agriculture. 

Unfortunately for Mexico, Senor Limantour, noted for 
his undoubtedly upright, well-balanced financial negotia- 
tions, failed to recognize Mexico's need in this respect. 
The situation had been well known to men of science since 
1899, when the national credit reached a height indicating 
the possibility of undertaking irrigation of the country on a 
large scale. The Department of Fomento, which is respon- 
sible for the economic progress of the country, was directed 
from 1880 to 1907 by deluded persons — honest and other- 
wise — or by very honorable persons without initiative or a 
real understanding of the vital needs of the country. 

Don Olegario Molina assumed control of the Depart- 
ment of Fomento in 1908, and was thoroughly alive to the 
stupendous obligations which his position imposed upon him, 
and set about energetically to try to carry them out. He 
began by removing certain abuses which laws regarding un- 
claimed lands had produced, and by taking up the study of 
the national lands which were under the control of his de- 
partment, and which were destined for national and foreign 
colonization. He understood that the salvation of the nation 
depended upon not losing a single drop of available water, 
obtained either through precipitation or from rivers, lakes, 
ponds or wells to be found on Government lands. He 
worked until he obtained constitutional reform which cen- 
tralized, under Federal control, all the water rights which 
were not held under incontestable titles. He initiated and 
by means of previous free discussion obtained the approba- 
tion by the Federal Congress of the water laws which would 
enable the Government to undertake without delay the irri- 
gation of the country. He obtained an appropriation of 
600,000 pesos to defray the cost of engaging a commission 
of engineers who were to select the sections to which prefer- 
ence should be given in the irrigation plan, and to point out 



98 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the best means of carrying it out. In 1908 Secretary of 
the Treasury, Limantour, founded the financial institution 
known as Caja de Prestamos para la Agricultura y Fomento 
de la Irrigacion (Loan Fund for Agricultural Work and 
the Development of Irrigation), with a Mexican capital of 
10,000,000 pesos silver, and obtained, besides, a loan of 
50,000,000 pesos silver with Government guarantees. The 
firm of Pearson & Son was engaged by the Department of 
Fomento to study the conditions in the vicinity of the river 
Nazas, which is the source of the fertility of the "Laguna" 
district, and which has made possible the cotton growing of 
this region. A loan was granted to the Sautena Company 
for the irrigation of 40,000 hectares of good land, on condi- 
tion, however, that not less than 15,000 hectares, equipped 
with good irrigation facilities, were to be turned over to 
the Federal Government for the formation of small agricul- 
tural land holdings. The Department of Fomento granted 
Senor Cuesta Gallardo a concession to drain part of Lake 
Chapala, which would make possible the cultivation of a 
great area of notably fertile lands. Under the dictatorship 
of General Diaz, 3,000,000 pesos in cash was loaned to 
Don Lorenzo Gonzalez Trevino, uncle of ex-President 
Francisco Madero, to enable him to complete the extensive 
irrigation plants he had under construction on his properties 
in the state of Coahuila. 

I give these facts to prove that in the two years previous 
to the revolution, from 1908 to 19 10, the dictatorship 
authorized the appropriation of the large sum of 96,000,000 
pesos silver, or $45,000,000, to further irrigating enter- 
prises. This amply proves that the irrigation work contem- 
plated by Don Olegario Molina, the Secretary of Fomento, 
was serious, well planned, definitely decided and energetic- 
ally launched. 

This proves that the dictatorship of Diaz, notwithstand- 
ing its great deficiencies, had taken up in behalf of the 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 99 

nation the work that a scientific study of the Mexican eco- 
nomical problem pointed out to be necessary. This prob- 
lem is unknown to the revolutionary men of the old regime 
who now want to pass for men of the new era, and to the 
really new men who look with ambitious eyes to the su- 
preme power without first having proved themselves capable 
of wielding it. 

In 1910 the revolution for "the redemption of the peo- 
ple" had not seen the light of day, but the revolution to 
rebuild the shattered ambitions of the younger generation 
and those of the older generation, anxious to pose as belong- 
ing to the former, was then put into operation. This era 
of political personalism gave rise to the great social revolu- 
tion which is tearing Mexico to shreds, and in which the 
President of the United States, Mr. Woodrow Wilson, fig- 
ures as one of the leading actors. 

What has been the work of this saving, and according to 
President Wilson, necessary revolution? In order that no 
one may attribute my reply to anger, rancor, partial or abso- 
lute blindness, or preconception that savors of the sociolog- 
ical clinic, I shall quote directly the three leading personages 
who have figured in the Mexican revolution: The First 
Chief, Don Venustiano Carranza, the ex-military genius, 
Don Francisco Villa, and the President of the United States, 
Mr. Woodrow Wilson. 

In December, 19 15, through the most loyal section of the 
Carranza press, the First Chief has been quoted as saying in 
an address delivered at Monterey or Laredo: "Have faith 
and patience." Faith is usually recommended to those who 
do not believe or who doubt; patience to those who suffer. 

We are to believe, then, from the impression given by 
Senor Carranza himself, that the Mexican people who are 
such ardent partisans of the revolution, have suffered even 
to the point of demoralization after eighteen months of that 
revolution's triumph? 



100 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The ex-"military genius," Don Francisco Villa, in his last 
manifesto, addressed to the remainder of his followers and 
to the world, says that the great majority of the chiefs of 
his army have been nothing more than highwaymen, who 
took up arms with no other idea than loot. 

President Wilson, in as dignified a document as his Mes- 
sage to the Gjngress of the United States, says that it can- 
not yet be determined whether or not his policy has bene- 
fited Mexico; that he hopes for the "rebirth" of the nation; 
and that the revolution he befriended, in so far as he was 
able, has found few sympathizers outside Mexican territory. 
In this view no one can concur, because up to the present 
time no one has been able to prove that in Mexican territory 
and in the hearts of the majority of the Mexican people 
there is to be found an overwhelming sympathy for a revo- 
lution that has brought them to such a pitiable state of 
misery and suffering. If President Wilson expects the "re- 
birth" of the Mexican nation, it means that for the present 
it is submerged and that the revolution has been the cause 
of the submersion. 

If the supreme object of the revolution has been to solve 
the agrarian problem by the partition of lands, its advo- 
cates, whom I have just named, are not proposing anything 
new. The dictatorship had this in view, with the marked 
difference that the dictatorial Government knew that before 
distributing land among the people it was necessary to make 
it productive by means of irrigation. The revolution, with 
its avowed contempt and hatred for everything that repre- 
sents culture, education and science, will fail in its attempt 
to save the people from hunger by putting them in posses- 
sion of exhausted, unproductive lands. The end will be 
death — death from inanition, sorrow, desperation and hatred 
against those whose duty it was to have considered the ques- 
tion scientifically before drawing them into a vortex from 



THE AGRARIAN QUESTION lor 

which, perhaps, they may never extricate themselves as a 
free and independent people. 

President Wilson doubtless believed that the Mexican 
revolution w^as necessary because the time had come when, 
in his opinion, it was expedient that the land should be 
turned over to the Mexican people, to be cultivated by them 
on their own account. But as these valuable lands did not 
exist, as I have proved, the revolution was not necessary. 
Even granting for the sake of argument that the lands 
existed, such a revolution was not necessary, because the 
planters never questioned the right of the Federal Govern- 
ment to enforce the constitutional article which gives it the 
right to condemn private property for public utility, the 
owner having been previously indemnified. Never has the 
conservative press, or any planter as representative or sena- 
tor, or in any capacity whatsoever, ever questioned in any 
public speech or writing, that the formation of small land- 
holding was not of public utility, even if to accomplish this 
it were necessary to lay hands on the large holdings, pro- 
vided always that it were done according to terms prescribed 
by the Federal Constitution, which are those that hold good 
in all civilized nations in similar cases. The planters, there- 
fore, had given ample proof that they did not intend to im- 
pede, much less openly oppose, the progressive step. When 
the construction of railroads began to be actively taken up, 
the condemnation of certain private tracts was necessary for 
the proper development of the lines. This met with no 
opposition whatsoever from the landowners, although some 
of them made exorbitant indemnity claims. Congress then 
passed a carefully considered law, covering the question of 
expropriated lands, fixing equitable terms that would be 
acceptable to both the railroads and the planters. The law 
was accepted without appreciable resistance, and Mexico 
constructed twenty thousand kilometers of railroads on 
terms acceptable to both planters and railway companies. 



102 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

If the landholders of Mexico have never In any way 
shown the slightest opposition to the formation of the small 
landholdings, why has this revolution been, so to speak, dedi- 
cated to them with diabolical hate? Let us grant for the 
sake of argument that they had made up their mind to resist 
the division of their lands once they had been irrigated, 
although the dictatorial Government did not give pecuniary 
assistance for the Irrigation of private property if the owners 
did not promise by public deeds to cede an important part 
of the irrigated lands for the formation of small holdings. 
Supposing, as I have said, that the planters had decided with- 
out giving any outward sign — because they certainly never 
gave outward sign of any such intention — of preventing by 
political and even revolutionary means the formation of 
small landholdings through legal expropriation of the large 
holdings, it Is not sensible, just, fitting, or heroic for a peo- 
ple wishing to acquire lands which they need, and which 
they wish to hold under conditions governing civilized 
nations, to rise with a well-defined program of extermina- 
tion, breathing an infernal hate, against an absolutely legiti- 
mate property-owning class before that class has refused in 
a clear and definite manner to satisfy the popular demand. 

Until President Wilson gives the American public, the 
'Mexican public and the rest of the world a proof, or even 
half a proof, that the Mexican landowners were the enemies 
of the movement to Improve the condition of the people by 
the formation of small landholdings, he has no right, based 
upon ethics or science, or upon the most elementary notions 
of civilization, to state before so eminently, world-wide re- 
spected an assemblage as the Congress of the United States 
that the tremendous, sanguinary Mexican revolution, fairly 
wading in anarchy, was necessary. 



PART SECOND 

THE TRUTH CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF 
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION AND ITS DE- 
VELOPMENT UP TO THE TIME OF 
PRESIDENT WILSON'S INTER- 
VENTION 



CHAPTER I 

A BOXER REVOLUTION PROTECTED BY THE 
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 

A CHALLENGE TO LATIN-AMERICA AND THE SOCIOLOGISTS 
OF THE WORLD 

IN its origin the Mexican revolution had a markedly 
Boxer character and was directed principally against 
the influence, prestige and interests of the United 
States. This is a fact, new to some, perhaps, which I am 
going to prove. 

No one, not even those who have had only a superficial 
understanding of the Mexican revolution, or a single one 
of the inhabitants of Mexico capable of holding an opinion 
about public affairs, can ignore the fact that the origin of the 
revolt that dethroned the dictator. General Porfirio Diaz, 
was hatred of the Cientificos, revealed in the universal, pro- 
phetic cry, "iVlueran los cientificos!" (Death to the Cientif- 
icos!) Even today, 1915, for the popular Mexican imagi- 
nation cientifico means the sworn enemy of the people, more 
criminal than the parricide, the murderer of innocent chil- 
dren, or the traitor. 

In a few words I shall say who the Cientificos were. No 
government can exist, even under a democratic or dictatorial 
regime, without a governing aristocracy, always -intellectual. 
In the eighteen last years of the dictatorship of General 
Porfirio Diaz, the Cientificos represented this governing aris- 
tocracy, and were attacked like all aristocracies that have 
ever formed a part of ultra-personal governments. 

I make haste to calm the uneasiness of any of my readers 

103 



104 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

who may fear a wearisome analysis of the much-talked-of 
dictatorship of General Diaz. I have no intention of doing 
anything of the kind; my exposition will be synthetical and 
short. It will consist simply in the exposition of certain un- 
deniable and convincing facts which will destroy the theories 
and enthusiasms of those who have approved and applauded 
the overthrow of the long-lived Mexican tyrant. 



MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE NATIONAL CREDIT 

In February, 1893, Senior Jose Ives Limantour was ap- 
pointed Secretary of the Treasury and Public Credit, and in 
October of that same year the Cientificos rose to power, 
choosing Senor Limantour for their leader. At that time 
the national treasury was bankrupt and the six per cent 
Federal foreign bonds were quoted in London at sixty per 
cent of their face value. On January i, 19 10, Mexico's 
foreign debt, the interest on which had been reduced from 
six to five per cent by the refund of 1899, was quoted above 
par. Taking advantage of the high credit Mexico then en- 
joyed, Senor Limantour went to Europe in 1910 with the 
object of again refunding, which would reduce the interest 
on the debt to four per cent. He succeeded in thus con- 
verting one-half of it, but it was impossible to complete the 
transaction because Madero's so-called redemptory revolu- 
tion had burst forth. 

I challenge Latin-America to produce a single example of 
a Hispanic- American nation that has ever succeeded in hav- 
ing its national debt quoted at par with an annual interest 
of four per cent. Expecting to be impugned if my data are 
not correct, I assert that no Latin-American administration 
has ever been able to place its country in the same rank of 
credit as that enjoyed by Mexico under the financial regime 
of the Cientificos. 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 105 



FIRST MEMORANDUM ON BUREAUCRATIC CANNIBALISM 

In the eighteen years that Senor Limantour was at the 
helm of financial affairs in Mexico, he negotiated the fol- 
lowing Government loans: In 1893 he negotiated in 
Europe a Government loan of £3,000,000 sterling, or $15,- 
000,000; refunded in 1899 when an important loan of £20,- 
000,000 sterling was affected through the firm of Bleich- 
roeder & Company of Berlin. From 1902 onward he 
issued five series of five per cent silver bonds, each series re- 
deemable at 20,000,000 pesos silver, or a total in gold of 
$50,000,000. In 1904 he negotiated with the New York j 
house of J. Pierpont Morgan a loan of $40,000,000. The < 
total amount of the loans negotiated by Senor Limantour 
during his eighteen years of tenure of office reached $105,- 
000,000. 

The voraciousness of Latin-American bureaucracies, which 
I have called cannibalism, is well known; they swallow 
European loans of millions, which are to them what a morsel 
of pate de foie gras would be to an insatiable glutton. 

I challenge Latin-America to tell me which of the nations 
that come under this designation, having the credit that 
Mexico had in Europe and the United States, has limited 
itself to negotiating Government loans at the rate of $6.25 
per inhabitant, in the long period of eighteen years. Pro- 
visionally, I take it upon myself to answer, none. 

These bureaucracies constitute the real and direful oppres- 
sion of the unfortunate Latin-American peoples who, more 
than liberty, need honest government, and to be relieved of 
the horde of public officials which preys upon them. It 
bodes ill for the future of these nations that each of these 
bureaucracies is increasing yearly the national expense 
budget; that they are responsible for deficits more or less 
large; and that to shield themselves they float foreign loans. 



io6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

or take from the taxes what ought to be devoted to the ma- 
terial Improvement of the country. 

In 1894, under the regime of the Cientificos, besides the 
outlay for the national debt, and the army and navy, there 
remained for the bureaucracy 20,000,000 pesos annually. In 
1 9 10, the year the Madero revolution broke out, notwith- 
standing the development of the country, the Federal bureau- 
cracy received 70,000,000 pesos, so that In seventeen years 
there was an Increase of 40,000,000 pesos to meet the legiti- 
mate expenses of the Government, and for the insatiable bu- 
reaucratic cannibalism which existed notwithstanding Senor 
Limantour's constant war against it. This war finally ended 
by making him the most unpopular man in Mexico, as he 
would have been In all Latin-American countries if he had 
been the minister of finance. General Diaz, clever politician 
that he was, knew that it was Impossible to govern Latin- 
Americans without a certain amount of "palm oil," and, not- 
withstanding his appreciation of Senor Limantour's high 
ideals, found himself obliged, In order to preserve peace, to 
make concessions. 

As he was a clever politician General Diaz never denied 
a "slice," a "bottle," a "demijohn," or a "wild boar served 
with mayonnaise"; but when the hour came to fulfill his 
seductive promises he always said that Senor LImantour op- 
posed their fulfillment and that, as he could not suddenly 
dismiss an official who had rendered such valuable services 
to his administration, his friends, his very dear friends, his 
ever-faithful friends, ought to grant him a little time in 
r which to replace him. The result of this astute political 
method was that General Diaz's popularity began to wane, 
and Senor Limantour's to disappear altogether. 

But to return to figures. The increase in the expense 
budget of 40,000,000 pesos silver in eighteen years corre- 
sponds to an arithmetical progression which in round figures 
equals 2,300,000 pesos silver per annum. 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 107 

In 191 1, after seventeen years, the Federal receipts, which 
in 1894 amounted to 45,000,000, increased to 112,000,000 
pesos. This increase amounted to 67,000,000 pesos, corre- 
sponding to an arithmetical progression which equals 4,200,- 
000 pesos per annum. 

We have then: 

Progressive increase per year in expenses.. 2,300,000 pesos silver 
Progressive increase in Federal receipts 

per year 4,200,000 pesos silver 

This constant increase of the Federal receipts over the 
expenditures enabled the dictatorship under General Diaz to 
establish a treasury fund which reached a maximum in coin 
of 84,000,000 pesos silver. 

I challenge Latin-America to tell me in which of the na- 
tions that come under this designation is to be found the 
remarkable phenomenon of a nation in which the receipts 
have considerably exceeded the expenditures. 

I reply unhesitatingly that this phenomenon, outside of 
Mexico, and in the space of one hundred years, has occurred 
once only — in the island of Cuba when the administration 
of its affairs was in the hands of that true patriot Senor 
Tomas Estrada Palma. But this ideal condition in Cuba 
lasted only four years, whereas in Mexico, under an admin- 
istration of supposed thieves — as President Wilson believes 
— it lasted without interruption for sixteen years. 

THIRD MEMORANDUM CONCERNING BUREAUCRATIC 
CANNIBALISM 

More than three hundred governments have been over- 
thrown in the Latin-American countries since they attained 
their independence. All of them left empty treasuries, and 
the majority left the nation utterly devoid of credit at home 
and abroad. The only exception of which I know is the one 
already mentioned of the Cuban President who, when he 
vacated the presidential chair, left $27,000,000, which un- 



io8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

doubtedly greatly influenced the avalanche of "democratic 
principles" that overwhelmed him. In Mexico, when Gen- 
eral Diaz resigned, Seiior Limantour handed over to the 
new Secretary of the Treasury, Senor Ernesto Madero, uncle 
of the "Saviour of his Country," 72,000,000 pesos silver in 
coin, deposited in the National Treasury, in the National 
Bank of Mexico, and in the most powerful banks of New 
York, London, Paris and Germany. 

I can safely say that, outside the case of Cuba already 
mentioned, no overthrown Latin-American Government has 
ever left in its national treasury the amount left by the so- 
called thieving dictatorship of General Diaz in the Mexican 
treasury. 

MEMORANDUM ON ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS 
BROUGHT AGAINST THE DIAZ DICTATORSHIP 

Senor Jose N. Macias, a revolutionary Maderista writer, 
charges the dictatorship with having raised the national debt 
as high as 300,000,000 pesos silver, or $150,000,000, thus 
laying a heavy burden on the Mexican people for a great 
many years. 

Apparently Senor Macias does not know his subject. The 
total amount of the national debt at the time of General 
Diaz's resignation was, not 300,000,000, but 458,000,000 
pesos silver. 

But the accuser, it would seem, is entirely unaware of the 
use to which these 458,000,000 pesos silver were put, and 
it will be my pleasure to inform him in a few words, and in 
such a manner as will render impossible any impugning of 
my statement. 

In 1824 the Mexican nation contracted a debt in London 
of 32,000,000 pesos silver, and at the same time another was 
laid upon it by claims made by foreign governments in the 
name of their respective subjects. These debts, once they were 
consolidated, were classified as, the English Debt, the Spanish 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 109 

Debt, the Padre Moran Debt, and the United States Debt, 
the latter being represented by the well-known Carvajal 
bonds. With the exception of the United States debt the 
total of these debts amounted in 1851 to 50,000,000 pesos 
gold. When Diaz assumed the reins of government in 
1877 he found that his country was dishonored before the 
world because of its failure to liquidate these legitimate 
claims which it had bound itself in honor to meet. In 1885 
the total amount of the Mexican foreign debt, including 
unpaid interest, was 100,000,000 pesos, and the Secretary 
of the Treasury, Senor Manuel Dublan, through various 
transactions, was able in 1888 to consolidate the Mexican 
foreign debt into six per cent bonds, representing a nominal 
value of £10,500,000 sterling or 52,500,000 Mexican pesos 
gold. 

The Mexican national debt was enormous, and Senor 
Dublan devoted all his energies to it. By means of various 
transactions with the creditors he was able to make a very 
advantageous settlement for the country, reducing the debt 
to 53,000,000 pesos silver, or $26,500,000. 

When silver depreciated so low as to be worth in gold 
half, or even less than half, its value, the Mexican debt of 
52,500,000 pesos gold existing in 1888 was converted into 
a debt of 105,000,000 pesos silver which, added to the 53,- 
000,000 pesos silver, amount of the previous debt, equals a 
total of 158,000,000 pesos silver, corresponding to the na- 
tional debt previous to the dictatorship of General Diaz, 
and which had been contracted in great part after 1824. 
Consequently, the dictatorship of General Diaz can be held 
accountable for the distribution of 300,000,000 pesos silver 
only, an amount which at his retirement remained in the 
nature of a national debt. 

A fact which no one can doubt or deny is that during the 
dictatorship of General Diaz twenty thousand kilometers of 
railways were constructed in Mexico, subsidized by the Gov- 



no WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ernment to the amount of 170,000,000 pesos silver, or $80,- 
000,000, an average of $4,250 per kilometer. 

Mexico has a superficial area of 2,000,000 square kilo- 
meters, and had a population of 10,000,000 at the time the 
railways began to be developed by American capital. The 
population in 19 10 had increased to 15,000,000, but of this 
only 3,000,000 were sufficiently civilized to increase the in- 
come of the railroads by their use of them. Before the 
exploitation of the petroleum wells, which was taken up on 
a large scale in 1908, fuel for railway motive power was 
very expensive. I ask all men versed in railway matters to 
say whether — taking into consideration the unfavorable con- 
ditions that existed in Mexico — it is a reprehensible or a 
praiseworthy act for a Government to construct twenty 
thousand kilometers of railway for the benefit of its country, 
assigning an average subsidy of $4,250 per kilometer? 

The Tehuantepec Railroad, with its magnificent artificial 
ports of Puerto Mexico and Salina Cruz, cost 115,000,000 
pesos silver. This estimate does not take into account the 
capital squandered by mismanagement and dishonesty before 
Pearson & Son took the work in hand, and before the advent 
of Senor Limantour and the Cientificos, with the Secretary 
of the Treasury at their head. The Tehuantepec Railroad 
is not a fairy story, the creation of the ingenious newspaper 
man; it is a fact known to the world as a work of merit, 
and well worth 115,000,000 pesos silver or $57,500,000. 

The construction work at the port of Vera Cruz, which 
cost 33,000,000 pesos silver, is also well known to the world. 
One of the most important works undertaken by the dictator- 
ship was the draining of the Valley of Mexico, an admirable 
and most successful work which cost 14,000,000 pesos silver. 
The City of Mexico owes everything to the dictatorship of 
General Diaz. Floods formerly inundated the city every 
year during the rainy season, plagues scourged it, and most 
unsanitary conditions prevailed, owing to the scarcity of 



A BOXER REVOLUTION in 

water for the greater part of the year. Under the dictator- 
ship a splendid system of sewers was built; water was 
brought from the springs of Xochimilco, and distributed 
according to the most scientific modern methods; streets 
were well paved and good pavements were laid. All this 
cost only 26,000,000 pesos or $13,000,000. 

Under the same regime splendid buildings were erected 
in the City of Mexico. Among these may be mentioned the 
Opera House, not yet completed, which would have com- 
peted in magnificence with the Grand Opera of Paris; the 
Law Courts building, also in course of construction; the 
Post Office building, undoubtedly one of the finest buildings 
in the world ; the General Hospital ; the Insane Asylum ; the 
Department of Railways building, classic and refined in its 
style of architecture ; the monument commemorating the cen- 
tennial of Mexico's independence, which has been praised by 
many foreign artists. Besides the sums devoted to luxurious 
buildings destined for political and administrative purposes, 
several million pesos were devoted to the construction of 
training-schools for teachers. Adding to these expenditures 
the amounts paid as indemnification for property condemned 
for these various public edifices, the total amount is 50,- 
000,000 pesos. 

Besides the construction work at Vera Cruz, some indis- 
pensable improvements were made at the port of Manzanillo 
on the Pacific, and at that of Tampico on the Atlantic, 
amounting in all to 11,000,000 pesos. 

Without taking into consideration works of minor impor- 
tance which were carried out under the dictatorship, it has 
been amply proved that the enormous sum of 419,000,000 
pesos silver was distributed in works that were well worth 
while, so much so that neither the demagogic press nor revo- 
lutionary writers have dared to censure them. 

I challenge all Latin-America, continental as well as in- 
sular, to point out to me a single case in which one of the 



112 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

nations composing this group has spent in public works an 
amount greater than the total face value of the loans nego- 
tiated by the Government. It is to be clearly understood 
that I refer to the face value of these loans, as none of them 
was acquired at par; consequently, the cost of the work 
greatly exceeds the real amount received from the loans. 

I assert that there is no Hispanic- American nation that 
can produce a case similar to the one I have outlined. 

CONTINUATION OF CHALLENGES TO LATIN-AMERICA AND 
THE SOCIOLOGISTS OF THE WORLD 

By January i, 1910, the revolution, ostensibly based 
upon hatred of the Cientiflcos, had taken form in the minds 
of the people. The conspirators, excepting a few anti- 
reelectionists, such as Madero, had long been covertly con- 
spiring against the dictatorship, continuing to receive salaries 
and favors from the hands of the generous Caesar, but un- 
willing to attack their patron openly until they saw him 
about to fall. 

On January i, 19 10, the following names appeared on 
the list of high officials in the dictatorial Government: 

Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Senor Ignacio Mariscal; 
Secretary of the Interior, Senor Ramon Corral; Secretary 
of Justice, Senor Justino Fernandez; Secretary of Public 
Instruction, Senor Justo Sierra; Secretary of Fomento, 
Senor Olegario Molina; Secretary of Public Works, Senor 
Leandro Fernandez; Secretary of War and Navy, General 
Manuel Gonzales Cosio; Secretary of the Treasury, Senor 
Jose Ives Limantour. 

I cannot recollect ever to have seen the name of any one 
of these, except that of the Secretary of the Treasury, Jose 
Ives Limantour, mentioned as a thief in any of the revolu- 
tionary publications, and, as I have already sufficiently proved 
what kind of a thief the man was who arranged the na- 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 113 

tional debt, and who negotiated foreign loans, it is not nec- 
essary to make further comment. I challenge the banking 
world of New York, London, Germany, Paris and Holland, 
accustomed to dealing with Latin-American financiers who 
wish to place loans on behalf of their governments, with 
offers of a rake-off for either side, to say that Senor Liman- 
tour was not one of the most upright — perhaps the most 
upright — of all the Latin-American financiers whom they 
have known. All financiers know that in government trans- 
actions involving hundreds of millions of dollars it is a com- 
paratively easy thing to manipulate them so as to get pos- 
session of several for one's self. It is absurd to say that a 
man who could with impunity have pocketed ten or twenty 
millions, or even more, should demean himself by stooping 
to grab two or three million dollars, not by peculation, but 
by extortion. 

But I make all manner of concessions. I admit that Li- 
mantour may have been a scoundrel, exceedingly clever at 
the game of advancing his private interests at the expense 
of the nation; nevertheless, lucky might the Latin-American 
nation have considered herself which had Limantour for 
her Secretary of the Treasury. 

I challenge all Latin-America and all the sociologists of 
the world to tell me if seven out of eight of a government's 
secretaries are considered upright even by the opposition, 
only one being classified as a thief — a thief whose operations 
have always benefited his country — does such a government 
merit to be universally execrated for its dishonesty? 

The dictatorship has been accused of putting a band of 
thieves at the head of the state governments. 



114 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 



List of the Governors of the States 



Aguascalientes 

Campeche 

Coahuila 

Colima 

Chiapas 

Chihuahua 

Durango 

Guanajauto 

Guerrero 

Hidalgo 

Jalisco 

Mexico 

Michoacan 

Morelos 

Nuevo Leon 

Oaxaca 

Puebla 

Queretaro 

San Luis Potosi 

Sinaloa 

Sonora 

Tabasco 

Tamaulipas 

Tlaxcala 

Vera Cruz 

Yucatan 

Zacatecas 



Alejandro Vazquez del Mercado Civil 

Jesus del Valle Civil 

Alamillo Civil 

R. Rabasa Civil 

Jose M. Sanchez Civil 

Esteban Fernandez Civil 

Joaquin Obregon Gonzalez Civil 

Damian Flores Civil 

Pedro L, Rodriguez Civil 

Miguel Ahumada Semi-Military 

Fernando Gonzalez Military 

Aristeo Mercado Civil 

Pablo Escandon Semi-Military 

General Mier Military 

Emilio Pimentel Civil 

Mucio Martinez Military 

Francisco G. Cosio Civil 
Jose Maria Espinosa y Cuevas Civil 

Diego Redo Civil 

F. Cubillas Civil 

Policarpo Valenzuela Civil 

Juan Castello Civil 

Prospero Cahuantzi Military 

Teodoro A. Dehesa Civil 

Munoz Aristegui Civil 

Ortiz de Zarate Civil 



Outside of Mexico this list will not have much signifi- 
cance, except in the relative value of the civil and military 
elements that compose it. A glance will convince one that 
General Diaz governed through the civil rather than the 
military branch, as there are three military governors and 
two semi-military as against twenty-two civilians. 

As regards probity, there were eighteen governors who 
fulfilled their charge honorably, and nine who were 
scoundrels. 

Caius Licinius Verres, the famous Sicilian pretor, repro- 
bated by Cicero, said that if one were a pro-consul or a 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 115 

pretor it was necessary to steal three fortunes from the na- 
tion: one to pay the sponsors who had obtained the lucra- 
tive position; another to bribe the judges when the dis- 
pleasure of a censor or a tribune brought one into the law 
courts; and a third to be devoted to the family. In Latin- 
America there exist even more ramifications than in the 
Rome of Cicero, because the pro-consul or pretor finds him- 
self obliged regularly to appropriate six fortunes: three for 
the purposes Verres has assigned, the fourth to support the 
illegitimate family, the fifth to carry on a scandalous pros- 
titution, and the sixth for any unforeseen case. I am forced 
to repeat the words of Le Bon, which I have quoted before: 
"In Latin-America the political problem, fundamentally and 
in general, is a problem of public thieving." I should, how- 
ever, say that the nine dishonest governors were not the cause 
of disturbance. In order to keep their posts they were 
obliged to maintain a good administration, paying all their 
employees and creditors punctually. At the first indication 
of disorder General Diaz dismissed them. 

If Mexico was a country of rotten politicians, I challenge 
Latin-America and all the sociologists of the world to say 
whether it is not a prodigy, worthy of being registered in 
letters of light, that two-thirds of the pro-consuls of the 
arrogant Caesar were honest and only one-third rascals? 

The accusation of injustice has been brought against the 
courts of the Diaz dictatorship. The accusation is merited. 
However, the tribunals depending on the will of the Caesar 
injured only the rich — the class hated by the revolutionists 
— with their unjust sentences. The revolutionists, there- 
fore, should have rejoiced that the dictatorship laid a heavy 
hand on those whom they never ceased to proclaim the 
oppressors of the people. The middle class, the real owner 
of the country and the director of its destinies at that time, 
was outside the range of the evils brought about by the 
workings of coerced tribunals, because being the political 



ii6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

class par excellence the judges, the secretaries, the President 
himself, feared them. The bureaucrats, as a rule, were 
plebeians who spent more than they earned, and who con- 
sequently made it a business to pile up debts, the unfortu- 
nate creditors generally losing their suits if the cases came 
to law, as the debtors controlled the press and possessed the 
power to intimidate and cow them. 

The popular class, both rural and urban, was absolutely 
proletarian, and only the middle-class merchants and the 
property-owning class, representing a small minority, had 
cause to complain against the autocratic methods of the 
courts. 

I challenge all Latin-America to tell me if in. the great 
majority of the Hispanic-American nations the courts are 
not venal even where no dictatorship exists, and similar, or 
even worse, than the Porfirian courts, in the countries ruled 
by dictators. 

THE REAL CRIME OF THE DIAZ DICTATORSHIP 

Universal life is preserved by the renewal of the ele- 
ments of each organism at different periods. Individual life 
is the constant, although not simultaneous, renewal of the 
organic tissues. Without renewal there is decay, and decay 
leads to the grave. General Diaz's ideal was the petrifica- 
tion of the State. He had permitted himself to be led into 
the irreparable error of fearing any change in the personnel 
of his immediate political entourage, and in that of the civil 
branches as well. The consequence was that society, seeing 
that a death's-head had taken the place of the living man, 
was shaken out of its usual tranquil mode of life, and began 
making mental excursions into the revolutionary dream- 
realm, paving the way for the creation of the reality. 

In igio General Diaz was eighty years old. Of the 
eight Cabinet members, two were past eighty and the 
youngest was fifty-five. Of twenty state governors, two 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 117 

were past eighty, six past seventy, seventeen past sixty and 
the youngest was forty-six. The Senate was an asylum for 
gouty decrepits, and the House of Representatives, which 
ought to have vibrated with youthful vigor and activity, was 
composed of a host of veterans, relieved by a group of 
patriarchs. One of the newspapers called the Government 
offices the "Pyramids of Egypt, joined to the Pyramids of 
Teotihuacan," because of the number of mummies they con- 
tained. Such an administration could not be called pro- 
gressive, not even conservative; it was a home for the aged, 
with a standing account at the druggists. The younger gen- 
eration was justified in wanting to expel the hordes of fos- 
sils which had fastened upon the public posts as the trilobites 
of old upon the rocks. 

Two causes may be assigned for the total degeneration of 
a dictator: too great age and too long tenure of office. The 
latter, as is well known, corrupts and hardens, all the more 
actively the nearer it approaches absolutism. General Diaz 
had exercised the supreme power uninterruptedly for twenty- 
five years; General Reyes had been the undisputed and des- 
potic ruler of Nuevo Leon for twenty-three years, and Senor 
Limantour had been the absolute dictator of the economic 
and financial policy of the country for eighteen years. Fol- 
lowing the inexorable laws of sociology, all three had out- 
lived their usefulness in the political world, and could not be 
anything but a drawback to their country, however worthy 
they might be personally. 

Strength is not proof against that insidious form of moral 
poison which gradually enervates the mind of the man who 
believes himself to be infallible. The most characteristic 
trait of such a man is the loss of proportion, of sentiment, of 
sensation, and even of reality itself. He ends by trying to 
govern an imaginary world with beings of flesh and bone. 

"The Emperor (Napoleon I) is all system, all illusion, 
as it is impossible not to be when one is all imagination. 



ii8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Whosoever has wished to follow his evolution will have 
noted that he ended by seeing an imaginary England, an 
imaginary finance, an imaginary nobility and above all an 
imaginary France, and in these latter days an imaginary 
Congress (referring to the International Congress convoked 
by the opposing powers)." ^ 

General Diaz ended by living in an imaginary world, in- 
cluding the view of his own personality and that of Madero, 
as we shall see. 

A sociological principle of a dictatorial regime is that 
when the dictator, who above all must be practical, is not 
intellectual he hates the intellectuals who serve him, even 
when they do it with the greatest care, loyalty and to the 
advantage of his dictatorship. 

A practical, theoretical dictator who knows his business 
will permit neither friend nor foe, neither person nor cor- 
poration, to express an opinion about his government unless 
it be to praise and extol it. General Diaz, in the dis- 
tressing period of his mental decadence — due to age and to 
the incessant weight of affairs of State — not only permitted 
his enemies to attack his administration with violence and 
venom, but he authorized, even incited, his friends, pref- 
erably the most discriminating, to pick flaws in his work, 
to point out the failures, lapses, even infamies that stood out 
like putrefying ulcers, so long as they were laid at the door 
of the Cientificos, who were his subordinates, and for whose 
actions he was responsible, whatever the form of govern- 
ment might be. General Diaz's supreme delight — a delight 
that surpassed all human and divine delights — ^was to hear 
the Cientificos calumniated, and to realize that, as public 
opinion gradually accepted the dictum of his friends, which 
transformed Senor Limantour and his colleagues into mon- 
sters, it thundered back replies charged with hate that shook 
the nerves of even the most complacent. 

1 De Prat, p, 94. 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 119 

General Diaz was obsessed with the idea that he was a 
necessity, that the nation trembled at the thought of losing 
such a man. It was necessary, therefore, to inculcate in the 
minds of the Mexican people that except through General 
Diaz, president in perpetuity, there could be no salvation 
for the country, because all things outside of him were vile, 
despicable and fatal to the public good. 

This obsession, as a rule, characterizes all dictators. But 
when they are sound of mind they order the campaign of 
defamation against their former friends only a few hours 
before they kick them into the street to be jeered at by the 
furious rabble, which applauds the justice of their Caesar. 
But when such a campaign is carried on for eight long years 
against the most distinguished men of his administration, 
without kicking them out — on the contrary, decreeing, 
as General Diaz had decreed with regard to the 
Cientificos, that they should succeed to the supreme power, 
then the dictator sounds the last note of the gamut, and the 
people, however low and servile they may be, will rise up 
to execrate and dethrone him. When a dictator has taken 
the absurd step of authorizing and applauding a course 
which brands his subordinates as malefactors responsible for 
the vice, misery and degradation which have led the people 
to the brink of an inevitable grave, he must be demented to 
believe that they can be made to believe at the same time 
what the fawning sycopants of the despot would have them 
believe; that is, that his work is a marvel, that he has pro- 
cured the happiness of the Mexican people and raised the 
nation to the height of the most civilized nations of the 
world. In a strange poem written by a Pole, the poet asks 
himself this fearful question: "What would happen if God 
were to lose His mind?" In 1908 intelligent Mexicans 
asked themselves: "What will happen to poor Mexico now 
that its omnipotent head has lost his mind?" And the 



120 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

answer was the victory of another lunatic, Francisco I. 
Madero. 

It was General Diaz himself who brought about that 
only one trend of thought and speech should prevail — 
that of blackening the Cientificos. This he obtained through 
the columns of the legitimate press, the false opposition 
press, the Government press, the Masonic lodges, the pulpits 
of the Mexican Protestant ministers, the normal schools, the 
poor schools, city and rural, the speeches in club houses, the 
seditious harangues in the public squares, and the discourses 
in the House of Representatives. The result was that the 
public, accepting all these facts at their face value, came to 
the following unanswerable conclusion: If the Cientificos 
are a set of unscrupulous thieves, why does General Diaz 
retain them in the most important posts? Either General 
Diaz is the real leader of these abominable scoundrels who 
are drawing their country into the quagmire, selling it piece- 
meal to foreigners, especially Americans, or General Diaz 
is a doting old Creton, the slave of the Cientificos who use 
him as a tool for national pillage. Be the case as it may, 
it is high time the Mexican people take the supreme power 
from General Diaz. 

It was not the much-lauded Madero who prepared the 
revolution against General Diaz, but General Diaz him- 
self, with his absurd policy of allowing the officers of his 
administration to be grossly calumniated for a period of 
eight years. Francisco I. Madero did not prepare any- 
thing. He simply stepped in audaciously to reap the fruits 
of a crop he had not even planted. He found it cut and 
stacked by none other than General Diaz himself. 

The Cientificos, then, represented an insatiable band of 
public thieves. They were not armed thieves; neither did 
they deal in peculations, falsifications or counterfeiting. 
Their enemies exposed their methods. According to these 
they consisted in protecting dishonest foreign enterprises, 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 121 

the avowed purpose of which was to plunder the Mexican 
people; these mighty enterprises being dominated by the 
arrogant American magnates and trusts. It is clear that if 
the Cientificos were thieves who stole from the Mexican 
people as the agents of foreigners — above all Americans and 
American companies — the hatred of the Cientificos naturally 
included the American colony in Mexico and the United 
States Government, and prepared the way for the moral, 
and later, the material rupture with the United States. 



CHARGES AGAINST THE DIAZ ADMINISTRATION 

I am going to give a list of the charges which the real 
revolutionists, led by General Bernardo Reyes, prepared for 
the consideration of the Mexican people. 

I should like, however, to say that I do not hold myself 
responsible for the accuracy of these charges. For the pres- 
ent, I neither approve nor contest; I limit myself to saying 
that some are false; others simply absurd; others grossly 
exaggerated; others demonstrate a wrong interpretation 
from lack of proper understanding; some are true. 

Charges against the Diaz Administration: 

First — Having sold half of Lower California for a mere 
pittance to Mr. Louis Huller, of German extraction and 
a naturalized American citizen, who passed it on to an 
American colonizing enterprise. El Nacional, a newspaper 
with a wide circulation, started the campaign, causing great 
alarm. It held that Lower California would follow the 
fate of Texas from the moment that the same methods of 
turpitude and treason were employed against the Mexican 
people. 

Second — The Government was accused of having given 
its consent to changes effected in the Mining Code, includ- 
ing the clause which assigns to the owner of the land the 



122 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

coal deposits that may be found upon it, for no other rea- 
son than that of enriching the grantees of unclaimed lands 
in the state of Coahuila, who had acquired the Sabina 
lands for an insignificant sum with a view to selling them 
to the American multi-millionaire, Huntington. 

Third — Having sold, for next to nothing, 3,000,000 hec- 
tares of excellent lands in the state of Chihuahua to two 
favorites of the Mexican Government, that they might 
resell to Mr. Hearst, the celebrated millionaire, who con- 
stantly conspired against the integrity of Mexican territory 
so as to bring about armed intervention. 

Fourth — Granting concessions to foreign companies to 
exploit the oil lands, among which companies the American 
predominated. Granting them also exemption from export 
duties on the crude or refined product, thereby depriving 
the Mexican people of the only means at their command 
to derive anything from the exploitation of their great 
national wealth. 

Fifth — Notwithstanding the fact that the most scandal- 
ous of all the oil concessions was that granted by the dicta- 
torship to Lord Cowdray (consequently in favor of English 
capital), it was well received by the patriots, until the press 
began agitating the matter, saying that Lord Cowdray was 
intimately associated with ex-President Taft's Administra- 
tion, as his brother, Henry W. Taft, and George W. Wick- 
ersham, Attorney General in the Taft Cabinet, were direc- 
tors in the company organized and presided over by Lord 
Cowdray. 

Sixth — Having permitted the Guggenheims to monopolize 
almost completely the important metallurgic industry upon 
which the progress of mining in the country depended. The 
Guggenheims controlled the smelting plants of Monterey, 
San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes and Velardena in Durango, 
and were trying to get a foothold in Pachuca & Real Del 
Monte, thereby forcing the retirement of all the companies 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 123 

that had sunk a great amount of capital in smelters and 
mining ventures. 

Seventh — The granting to Colonel Greene, an American 
citizen, of enormous concessions in the copper lands of the 
state of Sonora, upon which he had established the famous 
Cananea plant, where the four thousand employees were 
treated like slaves, and with such inhumanity that there 
was an uprising among them, with the result that armed 
men from the United States passed into Mexican territory 
to protect the American oppressors. The national press 
stigmatized Governor Izabel of Sonora as a traitor to his 
country for not having ejected the insolent intruders by 
force of arms. 

Eighth — Having permitted the United States Ambas- 
sador, Mr. Thompson, to enter the business field in Mexico, 
something that would not have been tolerated in any other 
country, and having granted him personal concessions by 
means of which he organized The United States Banking 
Company and The Pan-American Railroad. 

Ninth — The permission given by General Diaz to the 
United States Ambassador, Mr. Powell Clayton, to appear 
every afternoon at the National Palace with a list of recom- 
mendations for private American affairs, in order that they 
might be approved immediately by the administrative and 
judicial authorities in favor of the interested parties, even 
when the requests constituted an infamous injustice to the 
rights of the Mexican people. 

Tenth — ^The arrangement by the law office of the noted 
Cientifico, Senor Joaquin Casasus, of the scandalous con- 
cessions in the rubber lands granted to the American multi- 
millionaires, John Rockefeller and Nelson Aldrich, which 
caused the ruin of a great number of poor towns in the 
state of Durango. 

Eleventh — ^The verbal arrangement between Senor Li- 
mantour, the leader of the Cientificos, and Mr. Mallet- 



124 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Prevost, lawyer of the Tlahualilo Company, of an agree- 
ment which ruined the river-bank- dwellers, both great and 
small, of the Nazas River in the cotton region of the 
"Laguna," who were for the most part Mexicans; and, 
moreover, the grant of several millions indemnity to the 
Tlahualilo Company for damages caused by it to the river- 
bank-dwellers of the Nazas through a colonization contract, 
which had lapsed under the provision of the law because 
of non-fulfillment, and which was null, besides, because it 
was unconstitutional, as Senor Limantour had acted without 
the necessary faculties, because it did not come within the 
province of the Treasury Department to settle matters of 
this nature. The American Ambassador, Mr. Henry Lane 
Wilson, was the chief protector of the Tlahualilo enter- 
prise to exploit Mexico, and went so far as to make the 
absurd statement that when there was even a single Ameri- 
can stockholder in a stock company, organized with stocks 
to the bearer, incorporated under Mexican laws, even if his 
share were only one cent, it gave the United States Govern- 
ment the right to make a claim against the Mexican Gov- 
ernment under the title of rights of aliens. 

Even after the Secretary of Fomento, Senor Olegario 
Molina, disavowed the Limantour-Mallet-Prevost agree- 
ment, the inhabitants of the "Laguna" region, when they 
became aware that the Cientificos protected the enterprises 
that were working their ruin in order to please the United 
States Ambassador, assumed a revolutionary attitude, breath- 
ing hate against the Cientificos and all foreigners who sought 
to steal their water and lands — a hatred that later vented it- 
self in the assassination of three hundred Chinamen and sev- 
eral Spaniards in Torreon, with the expulsion of the latter 
and the confiscation of their property. 

Twelfth — Having sold for an almost nominal sum, 50,- 
000,000 hectares of marvellously fertile lands to twenty- 
eight favorites, who made poor bargains with the foreign 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 125 

companies to whom they sold them, mostly Americans, as 
it was the latter's ambition to buy up the country by bits 
and finally realize the boasted pacific conquest. 

Thirteenth — Having despoiled the Yaquis, brave and in- 
domitable as the Araucanians, of their magnificent lands 
to hand them over to thieving bureaucrats, who wanted them 
merely to sell to American investors. 

The spoliation of the Yaquis brought upon Mexico a 
bloody struggle of twenty years, which has served at the 
same time as a school of depravity for the Federal judges, 
the majority of whom dragged it out indefinitely in order to 
benefit pecuniarily by the frauds. 

Fourteenth — Having despoiled various towns in the state 
of Mexico of their magnificent wooded hills in order to favor 
an American and Senor Jose Sanchez Ramos, a Spaniard, 
proprietors of the paper factories of San Rafael and Anexas. 
Further favor was shown these two favorites of the dictator 
by allowing them to fix the rate of tariff at both the mari- 
time and frontier custom houses so as totally to exclude 
paper for newspapers, and, in great part, all other paper 
from the national market. 

Fifteenth — Having conceived the gigantic operation that 
gave the Mexican Government control of the great railroad 
system, with no purpose in view other than that of permit- 
ting the banking house of Scherer-Limantour, in combina- 
tion with American railroad magnates, to buy secretly and 
at a low figure the stocks of the Mexican Central, the 
National, the International, the Pan-American and other 
railroads, to sell them later at a great advance to the Mex- 
ican Government, thus consummating a piratical financial 
stroke against Mexico and the holders of Mexican railroad 
stocks. 

Sixteenth — Consenting, after the Mexican Government 
had obtained control of the American branches and fused 
all into one great company called Lineas Nacionales, to the 



126 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

appointment by Senor Limantour of an American, Mr. 
Brown, to the important post of General Manager, and to 
the assignment of all the important posts, especially those 
drawing large salaries, to Americans. The revolutionary 
press proclaimed as one of the great principles of popular 
restitution the "Mexicanization" of the railroads, which 
meant expulsion of all non-Mexican officials and employees. 

Seventeenth — ^The unceasing efforts of Senor Limantour, 
finally crowned with success, to place the oldest Mexican 
mining company, the Compania de Minos de Pachuca y 
Real del Monte, in the hands of an American company 
organized in Boston, and to having followed the same course 
with the Santa Gertrudis concern. Although both com- 
panies were obliged to keep the native working-men, they 
could dismiss all the Mexican employees, especially the 
high-salaried ones. 

A storm of indignation broke loose in the Mexican mining 
world against the Cientificos for having consented, for the 
sake of brokerage fees and enormous gratuities, to drain the 
nation of its capital by making it over to outsiders. 

Eighteenth — ^The grant by Senor Limantour of a mo- 
noply to the house of Mosler, Bowen & Cook to supply all 
office furniture to Government offices, as well as to Govern- 
ment schools, and to supply permanently all desk requisites 
for Government offices. 

Nineteenth — ^The abandonment by Senor Limantour of 
his patriotic resolution not to place any of the foreign loans 
with New York banks, as he had given these banks a share 
in the conversion of the loans of 1899, and had placed the 
entire loan of 1904, amounting to $40,000,000, with the 
New York house of J. Pierpont Morgan. 

Twentieth — ^The complete prostitution of the judicial sys- 
tem, which dictated that in case a foreigner was in litigation 
with a Mexican the case had to be decided in favor of the 
foreigner, whether he were right or wrong, without making 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 127 

the Mexican pay the costs; but if the foreigner were an 
American, his Mexican opponent was obliged to pay the 
costs of the suit. 

Twenty-first — Having been guilty of the servile and trai- 
torous act of lending Magdalena Bay to the United States. 

Twenty-second — Having shown great vacillation about 
fortifying the ports on the Tehuantepec Railroad. 

Twenty-third — Having rejected, in order not to displease 
the United States, the honorable propositions of eminently 
respectable Japanese houses to establish Japanese colonies in 
various parts of the country, particularly on the Pacific 
Coast and in Lower California. 

Twenty-fourth — Having neglected with culpable weak- 
ness to pursue the Chamizal question to the end, which 
would have put the Mexican people in the possession of the 
territory upon which the city of El Paso is built, stolen 
from them by the Yankees. 

Twenty-fifth — Having passed an immigration law in 
1908 against the Japanese and Chinese, dictated by the 
United States State Department, whose chief object was to 
prevent the Chinese from getting into the United States 
across the extensive Mexican frontier. 

Twenty-sixth — Having followed so degrading a policy 
toward the United States that any American, however insig- 
nificant or knavish he might be, felt privileged to repeat 
with haughtiness Saint Paul's famous words when sentence 
was passed up>on him, "Civis romanus sum." 

La Vox del Pueblo, a clandestine newspaper which never- 
theless circulated freely in the City of Mexico with the per- 
mission of the chief of police. General Felix Diaz, the dicta- 
tor's nephew, said that the Mexican nation was not the 
creation of General Porfirio Diaz and the Cientificos, but 
simply the mistress of the United States. 

When it became known in Mexico in 19 10, that a Mex- 
ican named Ramirez (I think that was the victim's name) 



128 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

had been lynched in Texas, the revolutionary party organ- 
ized a mass meeting, and from Ramirez they passed to Diaz 
and the Cientificos, execrating them for the cowardly, trai- 
torous policy by which they had robbed their country to 
benefit the United States. In the riots that followed, the 
agitators incited the people to set fire to the editorial office 
of El Imparcial, the Government organ, and if the stafE had 
not made a resolute effort to defend itself, obliging the 
police to perform their duty, the fire would undoubtedly 
have consumed the building and all the occupants would 
have perished. This riot was carried out with the consent 
of General Felix Diaz who, goaded by his ambition, had 
betrayed his uncle and benefactor. 

Dr. Lara Pardo, one of Mexico's most distinguished 
writers, at present in New York, in his notable book, De 
Porfirio Diaz a Francisco I. Madero, has written: "Mex- 
ico, says a popular adage, is the foreigner's mother and the 
Mexican's stepmother." This phrase, which not only became 
a b3^word in Mexico but was quoted by foreign writers, 
sums up in a few words the financial, administrative, interior 
and exterior policy of General Diaz. And nothing can bet- 
ter explain why, while from the outside decorations rained 
in upon Diaz, as well as his sons, nephews, relatives and 
lackeys, and he was extolled as the greatest man Latin- 
America had ever produced, in his own country, and by his 
own people, outside the enchanted circle that the adulation 
of his favorites had created around him, he was cursed, and 
the people waited with impatience the day when death should 
snatch from him the supreme power, or some man, it mat- 
tered not who, should rise up and dash him from those 
heights where he seemed to be lost in the clouds. . . . 
Only the meanest kind of a Colonial .government has as 
its only end the illimitable, reckless, headlong, disorganized 
exploitation of the national resources to further foreign 
interests at the expense, or perhaps total destruction of 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 129 

national progress. To this unfortunate class belonged the 
government of General Diaz. This political masterpiece 
never achieved anything but the facilitation of the inordinate 
exploitation of the national resources for the benefit of for- 
eigners, and the bridling or total extermination of national 
advancement. The bureaucrats vi^ho supported the admin- 
istration alone derived any benefit from it." ^ 

Senor Rogelio Fernandez Giiell, a serious-minded man 
and a dispassionate w^riter, late director of the National 
Library of the City of Mexico and a partisan of Maderism, 
says: "The foreign element, v^^hich had profited so greatly 
during the dictatorship of Diaz, looked askance at Madero's 
reform tendencies. Mexico during the last years of the 
Porfirian Government had been transformed into an enor- 
mous market to which people of all nationalities flocked to 
make their fortunes, until it became a land of adventurers, 
without country, religion, or family, whose god was gold and 
who, like the gipsies, pitched their tents on the spot which 
Mercury designated as propitious. Briefly, the Paseo de 
la Reforma and the beautiful "colonias" (the new residential 
suburbs) were filled with palaces where these self-made 
magnates lived in oriental sumptuousness. The monopoliza- 
tion of mines and lands was so wanton that it was no longer 
possible to find a piece of land as big as the palm of one's 
hand that did not belong to some American, German or 
Spanish capitalist. Everything was auctioned or sold, and 
the sons of the soil begged at the doors of the palaces of 
the foreign Croesuses." ^ 

Senor Jose N. Macias, an unqualified Carrancista, in an 
interview in 191 5 with Senor Fernandez Cabrera, the editor 
of El Heraldo de Cuba and a distinguished writer, said: 
"It cannot be denied (the prosperity of Mexico under the 

1 Lara Pardo, De Porfirio Diaz a Francisco I. Madero, p. ii. 

2 R. Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolucion Mexicana, 
p. 186. 



130 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

dictatorship of Diaz), but it was a delusive greatness, the 
greatness of foreign capitalists who oppressed the country 
in order to multiply their resources with almost biblical 
prodigality. . . ." ^ ' 

Sefior Roberto V. Pesqueira, Sefior Carranza's confidential 
agent at Washington, said in an interview with Sefior Fer- 
nandez Cabrera: "Everyone is aware that the republic 
of Mexico has been the field of exploitation for conscience- 
less traders, who by means of money prostituted the Gov- 
ernment to their own vile ends, obtaining concessions and 
sinecures displeasing and irritating to the popular mind and 
feeling. These foreign pirates found ready collaborators 
in the moneyed and conservative classes, which preferred 
the preservation and increase of their millions to the prog- 
ress and honor of the country and the name of the race." ^ 

I have given the long list of charges against the adminis- 
tration of General Diaz, collated by General Reyes — ^who 
shielded himself behind the flattery with which he attempted 
to blind the dictator — and by his followers. The latter 
tried for eight years by every possible means to arouse the 
popular class with the idea of intimidating General Diaz 
and compelling him to name General Reyes as his successor. 
As nothing excites the popular mind as much as the appeal 
to patriotism, and as from the viewpoint of Mexican history 
the United States appears as the implacable enemy of the 
Mexican people, every agitator unfurls the anti-foreign ban- 
ner because the popular class, whether barbarous or semi- 
barbarous, is organically anti-foreign. In Mexico the suc- 
cess of any agitator is assured if he turns the torrent of his 
eloquence against the United States as Mexico's natural 
enemy, and against the Spaniards, because of their cruelty 
toward the native race and their aversion for the "liberties" 
of the Mexican people in which they do not believe. 

1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi 'viaje a Mexico, pp. 211, 212. 

2 Idem, p. 254. 



A BOXER REVOLUTION 131 

Neither for that matter do any other strangers, or any of 
the reasonable and prudent people of the country. 

It is not easy to understand how a Mexican revolution 
animated by the Boxer spirit, particularly strong against the 
United States, could have enlisted the sympathies of the 
American people and the decided protection of its Govern- 
ment. How is this phenomenon to be explained? Further 
on I shall give my impressions upon this point. 



CHAPTER II 

THE MORAL UPHEAVALS OF THE 
REVOLUTION 

THE QUARTET OF DEGENERATES 

MADERO'S easy triumph over General Diaz is ex- 
plained by the action of a quartet of degenerates. 
Degenerate is used here in the sense of degenera- 
tion ; the transformation of an upright man into a scoundrel, 
or the conversion of an extraordinarily gifted man into an 
imbecile, or the occurrence of both simultaneously. 

Seiior Limantour was the autocratic chief of the Cien- 
tifico group, or, more properly speaking, of five persons of 
this group, because the rest, possessing enlightened skep- 
ticism, took as much account of the policy of the Cientificos 
as they did of the idle gossip of the court of Alfonso XHI. 
Senor Limantour proved his moral degeneracy by his pa- 
triotic doctrine of the rigid enforcement of court coercion 
in order to protect the interests of foreign companies and 
prevent the depreciation in European markets of the stocks 
of any foreign company doing business in Mexico. 

He also proved his degeneracy by believing that a man 
of Senor Corral's type, detested by the people and the 
army, and vi^ithout other support than the intellectual power 

132 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 133 

of four persons, who, however, were resolved not to com- 
promise themselves too deeply, or to risk their skin or their 
millions, could serve as the motive power to accomplish a 
social and political prodigy unknown to history (carry the 
election in the face of well-known unpopularity), and de- 
clared to be impossible by experts and practical theorists. 
If even six cells had remained intact in Senor Limantour's 
brain, it would have occurred to him to retire permanently 
in 1 910, taking his friends with him. 

General Reyes, transformed into a "military genius" by 
the press, was the pretender to the throne — ever present in 
dictatorial Latin-American countries — who confides in the 
power that lies behind the sabre. He proved his ab- 
solute degeneracy by this extraordinary fact. After plan- 
ning the political ruin of General Diaz for eight years, with 
perversity as well as cleverness, when the hour of assured 
triumph arrived, ushered in by the revolutionary events 
which took place on July 26, 1909, at Guadalajara, cour- 
age forsook the mighty warrior and he sought clemency at 
the hands of General Diaz, who had feared him for eight 
years. These two men, Diaz and Reyes, had stood in mor-^ 1 
tal dread of each other for a long time, and had calmly. ■ 
let the country fall into the hands of the Maderistas, not 
through fear of Madero, but through fear of each other. 

Senor Ramon Corral proved his complete degeneracy by 
his incapacity to see that the hatred borne him by the peo- 
ple and the army made his rise to power an impossibility, 
especially as General Diaz through egotism did not try to 
pave the way in civil circles. The majority in the Senate, 
in the House, among the state governors, almost all the mem- 
bers of the Supreme Court and all politicians, were his 
enemies. This being the state of things it would have be- 
hooved Don Ramon Corral, multi-millionaire, to take up 
his permanent residence on the Island of Corfu and devote 
himself to the consoling study of the Greek classics. 



134 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

General Diaz, of course, led this group of degenerates. 
The principal acts marking his degeneration, and greatly 
contributing to the ruin of Mexico, were: 

First — Having given an impetus, for the sake of villify- 
ing the Cientificos, to that war unto death waged by the 
lowest political elements in the country against his admin- 
istration — undoubtedly the least corrupt and most brilliant, 
from a financial point of view, in all Latin-America — and 
earning for it the condemnation of the people, who char- 
acterized it as a cesspool dangerous to the national health. 

Second — Having resolved, after carrying his campaign of 
villification against the Cientificos to a successful issue, that 
Don Ramon Corral — the most detested politician in the en- 
tire Republic — should succeed as their representative to the 
dictatorship, with all its machinery of oppression, degrada- 
tion and injustice. 

Third — Having failed, after outraging public opinion 
without regard to class or color — because the candidacy of 
Senor Corral was looked upon with horror by all, from 
the highest aristocrat to the meanest "pelado" — to organize 
a great national army that would have been able to drown 
in blood the uprising that was everywhere foreshadowed. 
Instead of following the course prompted by reason (when 
popularity wanes power must be held at the point of the 
bayonet), he persisted in maintaining an armed force one- 
fourth the size of that which would have been required in 
times of peace to keep down any popular uprising of the 
guerrilla type. The size of the armed force, including both 
Federal and state troops, needed to preserve peace, even 
when the Government could count upon public support, was 
well known in Mexico. 

Fourth — Having refused, even after the revolution had 
burst forth, to take the proper means to defend himself, and 
to spend as much money as was necessary to raise in four 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 135 

months a force of thirty or forty thousand Rurales,^ a feat 
that could easily have been accomplished, and reenforced 
these with thirty or forty thousand Federal troops. It may 
be added that General Diaz had two and one-half years, 
from the middle of igo8 to the close of 1910, in which to 
prepare for the revolution that threatened him if he car- 
ried out his resolution of imposing Senor Corral upon the 
unwilling people. He, moreover, had 74,000,000 pesos sil- 
ver reserve fund in the Treasury, and sufficient credit in 
Europe and the United States to have acquired two hun- 
dred, three hundred, or more millions, with which to have 
bought politicians, to have done away with revolutionists 
and to have dominated the situation in true despotic style. 

Mexicans, as well as foreigners, have never been able to 
explain this whim of General Diaz's to make Senor 
Corral Vice-President. It was not a whim; it was sheer 
folly, and all real folly of a pathological nature can be ex- 
plained on the basis that he who commits it is insane, the 
degeneration being a more or less serious state of mental 
derangement. General Diaz sought to make Senor Corral 
Vice-President simply because he was the most detested 
man in the country, owing to the fact that the press — 
applauded and sustained by General Diaz — had not left 
him a shred of reputation. Owing to the unbounded 
egotism that takes possession of the mind of a dictator in 
the last stages of degeneration. General Diaz thought it 
absolutely necessary that he should continue in power not- 
withstanding the unpopularity which overwhelmed him, and 
which was tearing down the barricades of adulation that 
were thrown up by his partisans to shield him. Every 
Csesar who has reached the pinnacle of tyranny is pursued 
by the shadow of his own greatness and the spectre of the 
popular hatred. General Diaz thought that if he appointed 

^ Rurales — mounted police who kept order in the country 
districts. 



136 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

to the vice-presidency an honorable, intelligent, likable man 
— and many such were to be found in Mexico — the public, 
which had believed in him as the only man capable of domi- 
nating the situation, would say: " 'The man who has made 
a nation' is no longer necessary; he is eighty years old; he 
is worn out; he ought to resign and retire to private life," 
General Diaz selected Ramon Corral so that the na- 
tion might exclaim: "Diaz a thousand times rather than 
Corral." This is mental derangement pure and simple. 

The unfortunate Mexican public found itself in 1908 in 
the hands of four such degenerates. Degeneration of this 
sort can be easily explained. Autocratic political power 
corrupts and hardens. Sefior Limantour had been the finan- 
cial autocrat for eighteen years; General Reyes had domi- 
nated the states of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila for twenty- 
three years; Senor Corral had been the autocrat of the 
state of Sonora, exercising his power through the firm of 
Torres, Corral, Izabel & Company, for twenty-six years, 
and General Diaz had been the autocrat of the nation for 
thirty years. The sociological aspect of these men was that 
of extinct moral and deranged mental forces. Mexico was 
lost! 

' The blame, however, is not to be laid on them alone. 
There was another degenerate, the middle class, which had 
been the undisputed owner of the land since 1867; the ab- 
solute political arbiter of the power and destinies of the 
Csesars, and the supreme controller of the army, which was 
always at its beck and call, as our national history proves. 
Why did this class, which detested the dictatorship, which 
manifested contempt for it, which felt itself humiliated by 
it, tolerate the Diaz dictatorship for thirty-three years? 
With this exception, in all Latin-America in the space of 
one hundred years, the longest dictatorial regime on rec- 
ord is that of Senor Jose Manuel Rosas in the Argentine, 
which lasted twenty-three years. 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 137 

The cause of this deplorable and cursed phenomenon was 
that all the bureaucratic vices had infiltrated to the middle- 
class stratum and completely corrupted it. The hour had 
come when a pigmy with the point of its diminutive boot 
could overthrow the colossus, apparently of bronze, which 
rested majestically on its crumbling pedestal. It was the 
hour prepared by fate for Francisco L Madero. 



THE IMPLACABLE AGENTS OF DESTRUCTION 

Once the die had been cast by the triumphant election 
of Sefior Corral, effected by means of stuffed ballot boxes, 
the public realized that it could still wait a while. Corral 
could not assume the power during General Diaz's life- 
time, and even though the dictator was eighty years old he 
might easily live three, four or even the six years of the 
allotted presidential term. 

But this delay did not suit General Reyes. He and Gen- 
eral Diaz disagreed, and he was relieved of the portfolio of 
War and sent back as governor to Nuevo Leon. General' 
Diaz then made Limantour promise never to leave him be- 
cause now more than ever he needed the support of all his 
loyal friends. General Reyes, who had retired to Nuevo 
Leon fuming with rage, was not one to forget a wrong; he 
also knew how to wreak revenge, not in the measure of the 
offense given, but in the measure of the hate to be satisfied. 
Another proof of General Diaz's degeneracy was that he 
did not do in 1902 what he did in 1909 — send Reyes out 
of the country, obliging him to remain abroad under sur- 
veillance, threatened with the fate of the Emperor Iturbide 
if he set foot on Mexican soil. 

General Reyes, knowing the wholesome fear General Diaz 
had for public opinion with its power to overthrow dicta- 
tors once it reaches the fusion point, planned what was prac- 



138 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

tically an assault on the prestige of the dictator in the pub- 
lic mind. To set this in motion he cleverly organized upon 
a military footing a dangerous corps of agitators. 

Students may be transformed into excellent agitators and 
very dangerous ones, because they enjoy a certain amount 
of immunity. It is very seldom that a government would be 
willing, except under extreme provocation, to stand a group 
of students before a firing squad, or to have them done 
away with secretly. General Reyes' son, Rodolfo Reyes, 
sought and easily obtained the Chair of Constitutional Law 
at the national School of Jurisprudence, with a view to con- 
verting it into a hot-bed of Reyism. From the moment the 
scheme was launched the younger Reyes devoted himself to 
the task of corrupting the youths of the nation who were 
subject to corruption, offering them public posts and en- 
thusing them with this attractive program: "The country 
for the young; they are the only force that can save it, 
because they are noble and virtuous!" 

The youth of Latin-America is at once noisy and stupid. 
In society, in conformity with the laws of nature, there ex- 
ists a minority for the young people, a minority for the 
aged people and a majority for adults. In the state the 
same ought to hold good: a minority for youths and old 
men and a majority for adults. Youth, along with its other 
deficiencies, is possessed of the absurd belief that the world 
ought to be governed by college students or professional 
men still in the infantile state of their intellectual devel- 
opment. This explains why the youth of all Latin-Amer- 
ica will at the polls declare a man of twenty-five acceptable 
for office; declares him senile at thirty and a mummy at 
forty. The proper governing age, according to them, is be- 
tween fourteen and twenty-five. It is needless to say that 
the success attained by Rodolfo Reyes in his attempt to 
enlist their enthusiastic support for his father's prospective 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 139 

presidential campaign was immense, and therein the youth 
showed their degeneracy. 

In Mexico Free Masonry has never been the respectable 
corporation that it is in other nations. Since 1824 the in- 
centive to join its ranks has been to obtain Government 
posts. All the high public officials became Masons in 
order to court popularity, and were obliged to give the 
preference to Masons in the assignment of Government po- 
sitions. They also sought under cover of their association 
to transgress laws, especially in the line of peculations, 
without incurring the corresponding penalty. The Masonic 
program was: "The country to satiate the gluttony of the 
Masons!" 

Descending from this level, already quite low, Masonry 
went still lower until it reached the point of having its 
dignitaries act as private detectives for General Diaz, do- 
ing all the dirty work that is part of a Ceesarian system. 
Nothing disparaged Masonry in Mexico more than this. 
In 1885 a point was reached when it was considered an in- 
sult for a decent person to be pointed out as a Mason. Gen- 
eral Reyes determined to make the most of Masonry to 
attract the lower classes — urban and rural — the radical, the 
patriotic, and the ultra-patriotic, all believers in democracy 
and easily led because their powers of credulity are inex- 
haustible. 

Representative Mexican society manifests toward foreign 
Protestant ministers all the consideration they deserve; but 
its contempt for the Mexican Protestant ministers is su- 
preme. And it is not because they are not Catholics; rep- 
resentative Mexican society has opened its doors to liberals 
who are not Catholics. When an educated person forsakes 
Catholicism in Mexico, he drifts into deism, rationalism, 
positivism, atheism, or indifferentism. Consequently, when a 
Mexican of the middle class becomes a Protestant minister, 
society looks upon him as a hungry beggar unable, to earn 



I40 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

his living in a more fitting way than by exploiting relig- 
ion; or as a knave vs^ho, before being dragged into jail as 
a pickpocket or a swindler, tries this as a last resort to keep 
his social standing. In representative Mexican society, which 
comprises a great part of the three principal social classes, 
the wife of a Mexican Protestant minister is looked upon as 
a sacrilegious concubine, and is not received anywhere. The 
Mexican Protestant ministers, feeling themselves despised 
by society, reply with hatred and vow revenge. The prin- 
cipal form of vengeance is, first and foremost, to attack per- 
sonal property rights, or in other words, to attack the rich, 
or those who on account of their high salaries and honora- 
ria can be considered rich, and, in general, all those who 
are not to be found in the lowest stratum of society. The 
Reyistas with their usual cunning won the Mexican 
Protestant ministers, offering them the friendship and pro- 
tection of General Reyes. 

The dictatorship established a Normal School to train 
teachers for the primary, grammar and high school grades. 
The Normal School students were obliged to study sev- 
eral years and obtained as a recompense miserable salaries as 
school teachers, and the relentless disdain of society, good 
and bad. It refused to give the school teacher, trained in 
the Normal School, the same social rank granted to a law- 
yer, doctor, engineer, clergyman or broker of good stand- 
ing. The general public, and in this is comprised the best 
society, including the intellectuals, see in the schoolmaster 
the comic and inoffensive dominie of the Spanish one-act 
farce. And when a schoolmaster is introduced as a grad- 
uate of the Normal School, that is, as a man who has stud- 
ied several years to obtain an honorable title, the following 
remark is usually heard : "This poor man must be exceed- 
ingly stupid to have burned the midnight oil studying so 
many years to obtain a salary little more, or even less, than 
that of a street-car conductor." 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 141 

The Normal School teachers naturally resented this atti- 
tude and declared themselves the enemies of society; that is, 
radical reformers of the rotten social system, which, accord- 
ing to them, can only be remedied by socialism or anarchism. 

General Diaz's motto, "No politics, all government," 
robbed serious political newspaper articles of their impor- 
tance, because all being of necessity partisans of the Gov- 
ernment and busy paying court to their master, no one 
deigned to read them, and the newspapers confined them- 
selves merely to news items. The most influential persons, 
therefore, in the newspaper world were the reporters. 
Among these were to be found many estimable and hon- 
orable persons, but the majority bore the reputation of be- 
longing to one of the most corrupt of all the fraternities. 
The reporter, of course, knew the public sentiment and felt 
the scorn manifested toward him on account of his generally 
dishonest and shameful conduct. This being the case, he 
also took his place in the ranks of the declared enemies of 
society, enlisting under the red banner of socialism and 
anarchism; two culminating points where a declared enemy 
of the ancient order of things can accomplish only ruin and 
destruction. 

The defenders of the criminal class before popular juries 
constituted another fraternity to be feared. These criminal 
advocates turned the courts into schools of oratory in order 
to increase their prestige in the eyes of the dictatorship and 
in those of the opposing attorneys. The Latin advocate has 
tv/o favorite pleas: First, momentary insanity or a heredity 
taint. The culprit's father or some of his ancestors were 
dipsomaniacs, lunatics, maniacs, epileptics, and hysterical 
tendencies manifested themselves in the female line; there- 
fore, according to modern ethical doctrines, responsibility 
did not exist. Second, the theories of Jean Jacques Rousseau : 
all men are bom pure, virtuous, upright; it is society which 



142 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

oppresses them, robs them, reduces them to extremest misery 
and finally kills them through neglect and disregard for their 
suffering. Consequently, it is not the accused who is the as- 
sassin; it is society, and it is society which ought to be sent 
to the gallows. The accused ought to be acquitted at once, 
and the Government would be benefited by granting him 
an annuity and assigning him a retreat to which he could 
retire to study undisturbed the problems for social reform. 

The lower bureaucracy always detested the higher; and 
in a dictatorship such as that of General Diaz, where the 
veterans had converted the Government offices into asylums, 
hospitals and even luxurious sanatoria, the hatred of the 
lower bureaucracies for the higher had assvuned unheard-of 
proportions. The lower bureaucracy was not socialistic, but 
it wanted a new order of things through the intervention of 
any national liberator, it mattered not who, so long as the 
lower bureaucracy was actually relieved of the host of de- 
crepits that weighed it down. 

Feminism has penetrated into Mexico as an auxiliary dis- 
turbing force. It is well known that in Latin countries it 
is only the unattractive women, despairing widows, and 
indigent spinsters, when they are susceptible to hysterical 
emotions, who consecrate themselves to the social cause. A 
woman, well or only moderately well educated, gifted with 
great or medium talents, poor, unattractive, old, or 
merely soured, is a great social peril if her energies are not 
diverted into religious and charitable channels. These re- 
forming women are the generators of a hatred against society 
more dangerous than that fulminated by a Barcelona anar- 
chist. In Mexico there are beautiful, handsome, delicate 
and admirable women, but they are in the minority. In gen- 
eral, as is the case everywhere, the unattractive and indigent 
predominate, and as the dictatorship did much toward edu- 
cating them, it armed an implacable and stupendous host of 
adversaries. 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 143 

The different battalions of this terrible army of agitators 
operated, according to the statutes of their institution, in the 
following manner: 

The proletarian student body, an imposing fraternity in 
Latin-America, instead of aspiring to march in the foreranks 
of the army of scientific progress, believes that it ought to be 
the vanguard of the most advanced ideas, be they vs^hat they 
may, true or false. Consequently, the student body chooses 
to affiliate itself with socialists and anarchists. It believes 
that it is its duty to espouse the cause of patriotism, and as 
patriotism in Latin-America means a rabid anti-foreign senti- 
ment, it is obliged to assume a Boxer attitude. It holds that 
it is the duty of youth to sacrifice itself for its ideals, and fol- 
lowing this precept it is always to be found at the head of 
riots and in all popular anti-social demonstrations. 

The Masons according to the Mexican rite are bound 
to propagate anti-militarism, anti-Catholicism, anti-despotism 
and anti-anarchism. 

The Mexican Protestant ministers, fulfilling their duties 
according to the general trend of ideas, must work against 
Catholicism and for the spiritual and temporal good' of the 
people; and they have discovered that the temporal good of 
the people, composed almost entirely of proletarians, can only 
be obtained by the extermination of the landowners. 

The teachers, trained in the Normal Schools, are preachers 
of the doctrine: "Society can be regenerated only through 
the school." This means that they are the regenerators and 
that the reins of government should be handed over to them 
so that the measures outlined by the proletarian school for 
the solution of the Mexican "social question" — the enrich- 
ment of the poor from the purse of the rich — may be carried 
out. 

The defenders of the poor in the criminal courts are 
bound, with the "social question" in view, to defend them 



144 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

even more strenuously, and the defense always calls for the 
spoliation of the rich in favor of the poor. 

The lower bureaucracy always had a grievance because 
of the deplorable state of the public service, owing to the 
lack of change both among the old and the middle-aged em- 
ployees who had fastened themselves like leeches upon the 
best Government posts. If the "social question," as it is 
presented by the press, could be solved by collective social- 
ism, the Government posts would undoubtedly grow in im- 
portance by increasing the number of employees, because 
then even domestic positions would have to be held by Gov- 
ernment emplo5^ees. 

The journalistic class — represented by the reporters — can- 
not have ideals, because they occupy the position of chefs, 
obliged to prepare the dishes craved by the palate of the 
master of the day. 

Mexican feminists are intelligent and, therefore, do not 
want the ballot. They know that it is a farce in the hands 
of the men, and that it would only be made a thousand times 
worse if women participated. Mexican feminism is inter- 
ested in the "social question" because it has outlined a more 
serious program, the monopolization of all the Government 
ofHces, basing their ambition on the fact that men are being 
needed in Mexico to work the rich mines, till the marvellous 
warm lands, run the splendid factories of our nascent in- 
dustries, speed the locomotives of our railroads, man the 
merchant marine to be established and the navy to be 
built, and, above all, develop the indispensable aviation 
corps which is the ever-open, far-seeing eye of the army. 
Mexican feminism is interested in the social question be- 
cause it has far-reaching reforms to propose, not yet given 
to the world; the time is not yet ripe. 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 145 

PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE NOBILITY OF THE PEOPLE'S 

IDEALS 

Needless to say, the professed ideals of the group of agi- 
tators are lies; the cloak that conceals their real ideals. 

The first great lie is their claim to patriotism. Mexican 
history has proved that in our political class there have been 
individuals who have shone for their exalted patriotism, and 
have been admired for their bravery and their disregard for 
personal safety and their disinterestedness as to personal 
gain. But the patriotism of the majority has been what the 
author of Notes on the War Between Mexico and the 
United States has called it — ^vociferous clamor. The po- 
litical class in general did not display anything but coward- 
ice, egotism, prostituted patriotism and excellent dispositions 
to betray its country once a week, or once a day, if necessary 
in the war against the United States in April, 19 14, any 
more than in the war against the Spanish expedition of Bar- 
radas in 1828; in the Texan war against the American 
settlers in 1836; in the war against the French in 1838; in 
the war against the Americans in 1847, and in the war 
against the French in 1862 and the years that followed. 

Foppa, the Argentenian journalist, perceiving this canker 
growing on our social body, says: "And the Yankee . . . 
the Yankee they loathe. Generals are still alive who remem- 
ber 1847; but, notwithstanding this loathing, they do not 
hesitate to seek constantly the support, the munitions, the 
funds, the friendship and the protection of the Yankees. . . . 
They are revolutionists, they say ; they are Mexicans, say L" 

The anti-foreign spirit has mortally wounded the hearts 
of our agitators without ennobling their patriotism. 

When General Forey entered the capital in June, 1862, 
the bureaucratic class flocked around him seeking positions 
with the same enthusiasm they had manifested toward Santa 



146 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Ana, Mframon and Juarez. When Maximilian established 
himself as Emperor of Mexico, Juarez was forsaken and 
remained almost alone at El Paso. In Mexico only a few 
heroic men upheld him. The aristocratic class has shown 
patriotism only when it has been a question of fighting 
Americans. It was the aristocrats who brought the French 
to Mexico, and at the present time they must acknowledge, 
whether they relish it or not, that the only thing they 
crave is a sabre, national or foreign, which will guarantee 
the security of life and property. 

Patriotism, sincere and energetic, tenacious and admirable, 
exists in the majority of the common popular class, the 
lower urban class, and in a very restricted section of the 
political class. With regard to the Indians it is difficult to 
say, because they received the Archduke Maximilian with 
extraordinary enthusiasm and with the mystic attitude they 
might have assumed toward a promised Messiah. 

The truth is that the main ideal of the agitators, and of all 
who hated the Cientificos, was vengeance. The army sought 
to take vengeance on all civilians, because they wanted to 
throw off the unsupportable yoke of militarism which they 
had borhe for one hundred years. It wished to take ven- 
geance on the Cientificos, because Limantour did not let it 
steal promiscuously, something they had been accustomed to 
do since the birth of the Mexican nation. It wanted, more- 
over, to take vengeance on the Cientificos, because they op- 
posed the extension of militarism, which was eager to realize 
the maxim : "The government of the people, by the army and 
for the army." 

The planters wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos, 
because, with the promulgation of the banking laws of 1908, 
their virtual robbing of the banks ceased. 

Illegitimate commerce, which was extensive, wanted to 
take vengeance on the Cientificos, because Limentour had re- 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 147 

lentlessly persecuted smuggling and had raised the morale 
of the administration to a standard that reduced this form of 
fraud against the state to a tolerable minimum. Legitimate 
commerce wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos be- 
cause they controlled the banks, and undertook unfair and 
ill-advised operations. 

The working-men wanted to take vengeance on the Cien- 
tificos, because Limantour had energetically opposed the 
Government's placing itself before the world in the light of 
favoring the anti-economic measure of fixing a minimum 
wage, which threatened to be the ruin of capital. 

The cotton weavers wanted to take vengeance on the Cien- 
tificos, because they opposed the raising of the protective rate 
of tariff to a degree where protection would be extortion. 

The Masons wanted to take vengeance on the Cientificos, 
because not one of them would ever join the society. They 
violently resented that the secret societies should pretend to 
govern, and they opposed the defrauding of the national 
treasury by granting lucrative positions and business oppor- 
tunities to the Masonic chiefs. 

The Mexican Protestant ministers wanted to take ven- 
geance on the Cientificos, because Limantour — not on ac- 
count of their Protestantism, but because they bore the 
reputation of being rascals — had never given them places in 
the public administrative offices, which they attempted to 
secure in every imaginable way, so as to be able to steal in 
whatever manner they could devise. 

The school teachers wanted to take vengeance on the Cien- 
tificos, because Limantour opposed the increase of their sal- 
aries, and the appropriation of five or six million pesos an- 
nually for rural schools. 

The newspaper men wanted to take vengeance on the 
Cientificos, because Limantour would never employ them, 
even when they frequently offered their services for a set 
price, and because he refused to subsidize newspapers. 



148 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The feminist element wanted to take vengeance on Li- 
mantour, because he had closed the door of the Treasury 
Department to women. 

These were the main points, and they worked with sav- 
age energy to create the present appalling political and social 
upheaval. The following facts were patent: All Mex- 
icans believed Mexico to be the richest country in the world ; 
the middle class had suffered inordinately from hunger, from 
the time of the Declaration of Independence up to the Diaz 
administration; the public revenues had quintupled; the 
public receipts each year exceeded the disbursements; the 
reserve fund in the Treasury amounted to 84,000,000 pesos ; 
Mexican credit ranked high in European and American 
markets. If during the eighty years of Mexico's national 
life the middle class, striving to live entirely off the govern- 
ment and enrich itself thereby, had not been able to steal, 
when it became an established fact that there was much to 
steal, the lust for personal gain by means of defrauding the 
bureaucracy rose to fever heat. 

On the other hand, to a Latin-American of the middle 
class the greatest offense that can be offered him — greater 
than taking his wife from him, violating his daughter, or 
disfiguring his face with sulphuric acid — is to have one of 
his friends amass a fortune. This is not to be endured. The 
heart of the one to whom this affront has been offered is 
consumed by a white-heat envy, molten lead coursing 
through his veins instead of blood. 

If the wealth has been acquired by means of defrauding 
the public, which in our decadent social sj^stem does not 
constitute a stigma, then envy is capable of transforming the 
injured one from a lamb into a lion, from a weakling into 
an athlete, from an arrant coward into a legendary hero, 
from a self-seeking egotist into a sublime patriot, so long as 
it gives him an opportunity to take vengeance on his former 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 149 

friend, and at the same time to defraud his country for his 
own benefit, even to the point of surpassing the rapacity of 
the first offender. 

The members of the bureaucratic middle class were in- 
telligent enough to be able to judge to what point the Cien- 
tificos were culpable, and to gauge the exact measure of 
Profirian corruption ; but, as they were the victims of that de- 
testable vice of envy, which blinds reason and corrupts the 
heart, they accepted as mathematically proved facts the asser- 
tions of the agitators to the effect that the Cientlficos formed 
a political party, and that every member of that party was 
receiving not less than 1,000,000 pesos per month or per 
year, as the case might be, for his share of the work of the 
association. The effect of this belief was deplorable. In all 
the homes of bureaucrats, mothers, aunts, wives, sons and 
daughters, servants and friends advised the head of the house 
to "do business" with the Government; if he were an em- 
ployee, even more so. "Doing business" with the govern- 
ment meant, of course, stealing. It was advised to take 
everything on contract, from laying fifty thousand kilometers 
of railroad to removing the trash from public offices, all to 
be manipulated so as to redound to the personal benefit of 
the contractor. If it was not possible to obtain contracts, 
the judges ought to sell sentences; the court secretaries, the 
papers bearing on the case; the clerks, the public trust; the 
chiefs of departments, the office furnishings, the hospital sup- 
plies, the prison food, the arms and ammunition of arsenals; 
they should rob the troops of their pay; impose fines upon 
all; sell justice under every form; sell police vigilance, whole- 
sale and retail; steal even the inkstands, pencils, paper, type- 
writers and typewriter ribbons — in a word, everything that 
could be taken ought to be taken, however low and un- 
ethical the means employed to accomplish it might be. 

It was even noised about the streets, in the cafes, in the 
theatres, in church sacristies, in public and private gather- 



I50 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ings, at the funeral obsequies of friends. "Steal or you will 
be condemned ; steal or you will be an unworthy father, un- 
worthy son, unworthy husband, unworthy citizen, unworthy 
friend, unworthy man and even an unworthy beast," was 
the universal cry. The passion for stealing was so ingrained 
that it became the life and soul, the warm, coursing blood, 
the master passion of the nation. The revolution, without 
the revolutionists or the bureaucratic class — itself so bare- 
facedly revolutionary — being aware of it, had already found 
its immortal principles: "Vengeance and pillage." 

Vengeance was vowed, above all, against the Cientificos, 
because as a whole they were, first and foremost, men of 
superior calibre. The fool tolerates, admires or loves the su- 
perior man; the mediocre intelligence detests him more than 
the insolent aristocrat, more than the egotistical, prostituted 
man of wealth, more than its own misery, more than all its 
mortal enemies put together. The hatred of the mediocre 
intellectual class for the superior men knew no bounds. It 
was characterized by a bestial ferocity which can only be 
qualified as that which springs from a mediocre ambition 
that has been thwarted. Needless to say the "social ques- 
tion" was the "personal question" so far as the agitators 
were concerned. The proletarian "I," vicious and insig- 
nificant, would rapidly be converted into the multi-million- 
aire "I," transformed by adulation into a respectable per- 
sonage. Such was the problem that the educated, intelligent 
contingent had to solve at the cost of the civilization and 
life of the Mexican people. 

Unfortunately for Mexico, and, perhaps, for the United 
States, out of the 1,600,000,000 beings who inhabit the 
globe, there was one, President Wilson, capable of believing 
in the "most noble ideals of the Mexican people," which in 
reality were nothing more than the infamous ideals of a 
band of kid-gloved, frock-coated thieves. 
President Wilson was touched by these "most noble ideals," 



THE MORAL UPHEAVALS 151 

and, forgetting that he had been placed in his exalted posi- 
tion to procure, within the limits of his legitimate field of 
action, the welfare and prosperity of the people of the United 
States, turned away from his duty to put himself at the head 
of the Mexican revolution in company of persons who can 
in no wise add to his prestige. 



CHAPTER III 
MADERISM 

THE MORE THAN SHAMEFUL FALL OF THE COLOSSUS 

IT may be urged that in all civilized countries there exist 
agitators of the anti-social type as capable of harm and 
as much to be feared as those who operate in Mexico. 
It is true, but the Mexican people are not yet civilized, espe- 
cially from the middle class downward. Civilized nations 
possess sufficient popular, traditional, intellectual and moral 
conservative elements to allow them to grant liberties to the 
classes that aspire to reform the social order. Even so, 
nations as civilized as France have found themselves in dan- 
ger of being submerged. Dictatorships are necessary in 
countries where, as is the case in Mexico, there is no other 
traditional, conservative element but the Church, with still a 
considerable remnant of influence; the army, which once 
corrupted has no influence for good, and the immobility of 
the rural masses because of their illiteracy, which prevents 
agitators from putting themselves into contact with them. 
Mexico's misfortune was that it should have occurred to 
General Diaz during the years of his degeneracy to con- 
trive to destroy all the powerful repressive and governing 
elements that a dictatorship should possess, and to hand 
over his person, his government and society to the infernal 
power of agitators to whom more liberties were allowed 
than in the most civilized free countries. 
, The famous Creelman conference took place in 1907, 

152 



MADERISM 153 

and after that — in fact, because of it — General Diaz gave 
permission for everything to be freely and indiscriminately 
attacked: Social order, natural order, divine order, every- 
thing which up to then had been respectable and respected, 
except his person, which was no longer respected, and which 
could lay no claim to being respected. Everything could be 
proclaimed and upheld: Jacobinism, scoundrelism, social- 
ism, anarchism, criminalism, bestialism, so long as "reelec- 
tionism" were admitted and tolerated. General Diaz never 
took into account that the three years' preparatory campaign 
against the peace and civilization of Mexico, 1908 to 19 10, 
had pulverized the foundations of the dictatorship. 

Opposite General Diaz stood that other abnormal degen- 
erate. General Reyes, the leader of a crusade aimed at the 
very heart of his country. As a society or as a nation it 
was doomed to perish, since it was at the mercy of such a 
mad, insane policy. Reyes did not consider that he was 
undermining the foundations of the building he wished to 
inhabit; neither did his son, the leader of the agitation, stop 
to consider that it was his father's grave he was digging; 
either as a man or as a politician, but in any event the grave 
of the Mexican people. 

The army could have saved the situation had it not also 
utterly degenerated. This was proved by its failure to over- 
throw General Diaz in 1902, as was its manifest duty. In 
Latin- America the army has a double salutary office: First, 
to end quickly by means of force anarchistic tendencies that 
are destroying the country. Second, to put an end to dicta- 
torships which, once degenerated, ought to be inexorably de- 
stroyed in order to prevent two evils: those proceeding from 
a decadent dictatorship, and the inevitable social anarchy 
that would result if the army did not at the proper moment 
overthrow the dictator, thus making room for another who 
would assume the power. He would always be better than 
the overthrown dictator, because nothing can be more harm- 



154 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ful to a nation than to be at the mercy of a man in the last 
stages of cerebral derangement. 

General Reyes proved his degeneracy in July, 1909. 
After the people of Guadalajara, including all classes of 
society, had risen against the dictatorship, the nation 
acclaimed him as its savior; the younger element of the 
army bowed to him; the conservatives accepted him as the 
"man of iron," and even the partisans of democracy upheld 
him, as the phrase of the demagogue Camilo Arriaga attests: 
"Any one but Diaz, even Reyes." Nevertheless, the much- 
lauded governor of Nuevo Leon failed to put himself at the 
head of the movement w^hich w^as backed by all society, their 
support originating in great part in the eight years' Reyista 
campaign against General Diaz. At this crucial moment 
Reyes abandoned his post, bowled to the orders of the dic- 
tator, submitted to being sent into exile, and to the be- 
trayal of his friends. The revolution, which already had 
the moral and physical support of the nation, was left with- 
out a leader, cast out into the open, to be marshalled into 
order and led into action by the first one who happened to 
come along. It mattered not who this might be, provided 
he possessed what the army lacked, courage and audacity. 
It was Francisco Madero who casually passed by and pos- 
sessed himself of the revolution, or more properly speaking, 
the revolution possessed itself of him, for never at the time, 
or afterwards, did Madero comprehend the revolution. 

The revolution began in Chihuahua and was organized 
by Senor Abraham Gonzalez, who in my presence concurred 
in what was generally known in Mexico — that he initiated 
the revolution, not out of hatred for Diaz, but through 
hatred of the Terrazas family, represented by the govern- 
ment of Don Enrique Creel. Dr. Campa, in his work on 
the revolution in Chihuahua, has proved what every resi- 
dent of Chihuahua says, that Pascual Orozco threw himself 
into the revolution because of hatred of Governor Creel, 



MADERISM 155 

who was the protector of the Chavez family. It was one 
of the principal families of the town of Santa Isabel, and 
was hated by Orozco. The brilliant Chihuahua leader, 
Salido, took up arms because of hatred of the Terrazas 
family, who were the protectors of Zea, the mayor of 
Cuidad Guerrero, whom Salido cordially hated. Jose M. 
Maytorena organized the revolution in Sonora because of 
personal hatred of Don Ramon Corral. In Sinaloa the revo- 
lution headed by Juan Panderas was inspired by hatred of 
the Redo family. In the "Laguna" region in the states of 
Durango and Caohuila, the leaders who fomented the revo- 
lution did so out of hatred of the Carzagalanista circle, 
which had obtained control there. In Morelos, Zapata had 
taken up arms because of personal hatred of the mayor of 
Yautepec, who had forcibly obliged him to serve in the 
Federal army. With the exception of Madero, we find 
nothing patriotic, nothing civilized, nothing elevated in the 
motives that actuated the revolutionary leaders of 19 10, who 
were not bandits. Everything was hatred because of injured 
interests or wounded self love, or offenses of a personal 
nature. 

I have pointed out that notwithstanding the fact that 
General Diaz possessed formidable means by which he could 
have smothered the revolution so openly flaunted in his face 
in 1908, he offered but feeble resistance to Madero, leading 
to his own fall and to what has proved to be the destruction 
of civilization in Mexico. 



WHO TRIUMPHED IN THE MADERO REVOLUTION OF I9II 

After the convention of Ciudad Juarez, which put the 
power indirectly into the hands of Madero, the Maderista 
press announced that the people had triumphed. This was 
not a fact. A people can only be said to triumph when 
it is capable of self-government; otherwise the one who tri- 



156 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

umphs is its tacit or actual representative. In Latin-America 
this, without exception, is the disloyal leader, the tyrant who 
calmly says: "Step down, that I may step up." The only 
benefit derived by a servile people from a revolution is a 
change of despots, never a new form of government. 

In 191 1 the material victory had been won by the leaders 
of the popular or sub-popular class, some of them reputable 
persons, others bandits. Among these may be mentioned 
Pascual Orozco, Villa, Urbina, Rodriguez, Amado Macias, 
Triana, Banderas, Iturbe, Calles, Alvarado, Cabral, Candido 
Navarro, the Zapatas, Salgado, Figueroa, Zamudio, and 
many others of lesser importance. A Venezuelan President, 
speaking of our burlesque democracies, said that in dicta- 
torial Latin-America the only serious feature about them is 
that by right of might they belong to the strong. 

In Mexico, so far as the. revolution is concerned, this bit- 
ter truth has been realized. The winner of the victory is 
the master of the situation, and Mexico had fallen from the 
feeble, tremulous grasp of General Diaz under the hoofs of 
the horses of ranchmen, cowboys and bandits in the north, and 
in the south into the clutches of a barbarous or semi-savage 
horde. Fortunately for the Mexican public the revolutionary 
press, with its illimitable power of suggestion over the minds 
of a credulous people, aiming to obliterate General Diaz's 
formidable personality, managed to pass Madero off as the 
saving hero, transforming him into a veritable idol in the 
eyes of the people. This crusade of fanaticism was carried 
to such a point that it was impossible to create among the 
masses, rural or urban, an enthusiasm for any deserving 
revolutionary leader equal to that felt for the defied figure 
of Madero. He was the only Mon of the gnostics of Mex- 
ican democracy. The work of the press was bound to be 
ephemeral. Every revolutionary press that has forged an 
idol is fated to be the one to demolish it, and the counter- 
feited portrait of Madero as a Herculean reformer was 



MADERISM 157 

destined to be shortly annihilated by the same press that 
had created him the superior of all other Mexican public 
men. 

The triumph of Madero revealed the nation's misleading 
position. The Federal army, although it fought with brav- 
ery and discipline in 1 910 and 191 1, was routed and hu- 
miliated. Notwithstanding its reduced numbers, it might 
have conquered Madero and put an end to the revolution in 
Chihuahua. Its failure to do so proves its inefficiency, and 
in this light its failure must be attributed to its advanced 
state of degeneration. 

The second fact is more significant and more deplorable. 
In our famous War of Reform, bloody and destructive in 
the extreme, the liberal leaders were almost all professional 
men of the middle class. Their only contribution to the 
existing national army was raw recruits and mobs. They 
suffered terrible defeats with fortitude, and carried on the 
struggle heroically until they were able to organize armies 
and to dominate reactionaries, justly acquiring fame for 
their bravery, intrepidity, constancy and resistance in an 
utterly exhausting campaign of three years, fought in the 
midst of want and misery. Their names deserve to be men- 
tioned: Generalisimo Santos Degollado; Generales Ignacio 
de la Llave, Pedro Ogazon, Miguel Blanco, Esteban Coro- 
nado, Juan Zuazua, Maunel Doblado and Generalisimo J. 
Gonzalez Ortega, who by a series of brilliant victories won 
the cause for the liberal party. To the names of these pa- 
triots, all of whom were lawyers, should be added those 
of Manuel Gutierrez Zamora, a merchant, and Santiago 
Vidaurri, a Government bureaucrat. Such were the great 
fighters of our immortal three years' war. 

In the Madero revolution we do not find a single lawyer 
converted into a hero by military feats, or as the leader of 
any important or unimportant detachment. One or two 
young attorneys were to be found attached to the person of 



158 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Madero, carefully hugging the rear, and the only profes- 
sionals engaged in the struggle, Hay, Gonzalez Garza and 
Fuentes D., never held important commands. The lawyer, 
Jose Maytorena, and the engineer, Manuel Sonilla, watched 
the bull-fight from behind the fence in the capacity of civil- 
ians. From a sociological point of view this proves that the 
middle class, with a few exceptions, was lost to shame or 
bravery — or to both — and, consequently, was no longer en- 
titled to the right to govern. The governing class should 
possess strength enough to be the fighting class, or to trans- 
form itself into it should occasion demand. A people is 
truly sovereign only when it knows how to discharge mili- 
tary duties, taking up arms for the defense of its legitimate 
rights according to ethical principles, which are nothing more 
than the principles of true militarism. The Madero revolu- 
tion revealed the deplorable fact that the middle class had 
lost control of the country, and that it must henceforth 
belong to those who possessed the greatest military strength. 
If Mexico fell into the hands of two hundred thousand 
bandits, it was not because of the decrees of moral law, the 
law of civilization or constitutional law, but of the natural 
law, which, all theories of jurists to the contrary notwith- 
standing, gives dominion to the strong over the weak. Since 
the triumph of the Madero revolution the educated middle- 
class man, honest or dishonest, is destined to live as a 
courtier, a bawd, a lackey, or as the private secretary of the 
leading bandit chief of the popular or sub-popular class, who 
cannot feel anything but well-merited contempt for them. 
No one noticed the change wrought by the Madero revo- 
lution. The real revolutionists who had spent eight years 
in working out their plans and preparing their campaign, 
and those who had recently joined the ranks, expected that 
Madero would endorse their great principles, "vengeance 
and pillage" — vengeance against the Cientificos, even to 
picking their bones with the greedy rapacity of vultures. 



MADERISM 159 



MADERO THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONIST 

When Madero triumphed, the student body expected that 
the Government would be handed over to them in virtue 
of their prerogative as the enlightened youth of the nation. 
iMadero, however, resolved to govern with the help of use- 
ful, patriotic persons, whether young, middle-aged or old. 

The Mexican Masons approached Madero, but he drew 
away with repugnance. He was a spiritist, although his 
family was sincerely Catholic. Among the male members 
of the family were to be found liberals of the advanced 
type, who professed the most profound contempt for the 
Masonic fraternity, whose history in Mexico has been de- 
grading and shameful. 

Neither did the Mexican Protestant ministers meet with 
a warm reception. Madero advised them, since the law of 
the land forbade clergymen of any denomination whatsoever 
to enter the political field, to devote themselves to their 
spiritual functions; and told them that, if in order to seek 
political offices they should cast aside their clerical garb and 
office, they would declare themselves unprincipled rascals 
whose only object could be exploitation for personal benefit. 
The criminal lawyers noted from the first that Madero 
received them coldly, and in a toast "The Apostle," as 
Madero was called, was heard to say that these very advo- 
cates were society's most dangerous enemies. For the femin- 
ists, seekers of Government employment, Madero had no use. 
He never hesitated to proclaim his dislike for intriguing po- 
litical women. In an absolute and final manner Madero an- 
nounced that he would not subsidize newspapers to eulogize 
him, neither would he buy up newspapers. The Nueva Era 
was established with private capital. The state bureau- 
cracies, which at the last moment betrayed the dictator in 
order to pounce upon the Federal posts, were slighted by 



i6o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Madero, who expressed his determination to keep in office 
all the honest and capable employees of his predecessor's 
administration. The members of the lower bureaucracy, 
which had aspired to cast out the higher, were advised to 
maintain an attitude of circumspection and respect toward 
their superiors under pain of dismissal. 

Great was the disappointment everywhere with regard 
to the vengeance every one had expected to wreak on the 
Cientificos. It appeared that Senor Limantour, before being 
made Secretary of the Treasury, had been attorney for the 
Madero family when "the Apostle's" grandfather, Senor 
Evaristo Madero, a highly gifted man who amassed a great 
fortune, had been its head. The Maderos thought very, 
highly of Seiior Limantour, understood the worth of his 
financial policy and moralistic campaign, and Senor Ernesto 
tMadero, who succeeded Limantour in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, determined to preserve the personnel of the department 
and the financial and administrative methods of his prede- 
cessor. The Maderos had always looked with disfavor upon 
the calumnies that had been circulated by the enemies of 
the Cientificos without, however, losing sight of the fact 
that there were two or three who had a good deal to answer 
for. The new Secretary of the Treasury judged rightly 
that it was not possible to govern without the decided sup- 
port of the national and foreign capitalist, especially in a 
country that urgently needed foreign capital to develop it. 
The demand of the genuine revolutionist was that Madero 
should govern with the help of the mob and the kid-gloved 
rascals. But all the working elements of the revolution 
soon felt that in Maderism, as it had unfolded itself, it 
would be impossible for them to prosper or even live. 
MaJero was noble, generous, civilized, worthy to hold the 
place he occupied because he repulsed with horror all rancor, 
all recourse to vengeance or rascality as helps to government. 
It is not true that the Cientificos started the revolt against 



MADERISM i6i 

Madero with the purpose of overthrowing him. On the con- 
trarj^ they were always grateful to him and never conspired 
against his government. I speak of the true Cientificos, 
who dissolved in 191 1, each one at liberty to do what he 
might think best. The element that overthrew Madero 
was the military, led by General Reyes and General Felix 
Diaz, both of whom hated the Cientificos. In the event of 
their triumph the Cientificos could have expected nothing 
but the most incessant and implacable vengeance, ending in 
their annihilation. It is stupidity or absolute want of good 
faith to believe that the Cientificos could have supported the 
insurrection against Madero in order to raise Reyes to 
power. 

From the first days of his great victories and before 
assuming the presidency, Madero had tranquilized society, 
alarmed by the triumph of the rabble, assuring them that 
they had nothing to fear, as he was determined to respect 
all the personal guarantees granted by the Federal Consti- 
tution of 1857, the reestablishment of which he had pro- 
claimed. The socialists, anarchists and reformers, who based 
their projects upon modifications or utter destruction of the 
social regime, which rests upon the inviolability of private 
property, were white with rage against Madero and de- 
nounced him as a traitor to the principles of the revolution. 

Public stealing, the other revolutionary ideal, was not 
countenanced by Madero. The truth must be told. Ma- 
dero was an upright President axd did what he could, within 
the limited range of his political and administrative knowl- 
edge, to abolish public stealing. 

Fifteen days after his triumph Madero was already dis- 
liked or hated in all revolutionary circles, proving that the 
actual ideals of the revolutionists were contrary to the prin- 
ciples they professed: honesty, kindness and justice. 



i62 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

THE ONLY ROAD OPEN TO MADERO 

Before assuming the reins of government in October, 191 1, 
Senor Madero ^sked my opinion of his administrative pro- 
gram. I shall transcribe faithfully my reply, vouching for 
the absolute truthfulness of my words. 

"Senor Madero, you are not, nor can you ever be, the 
spirit of the revolution because, judging by your noble con- 
duct and your civilized principles, you are in reality the 
spirit of the counter-revolution. The political problem is as 
follows: You cannot possibly govern with the revolutionary 
element, composed of rough but honest ranchmen, profes- 
sional bandits and demagogic agitators, leaders of the re- 
stricted civil revolutionary circle. You cannot fall back 
upon a dictatorship, because it takes time above all to es- 
tablish one; neither would the people who have supported 
you so nobly because they loathed the dictatorship of Gen- 
eral Diaz, ever permit you to fasten upon them what they 
have striven with all their strength to cast off. In Latin- 
America a dictatorship cannot be openly and brazenly estab- 
lished. All dictators have attained their object by means 
of patience, dissimulation, perfidy, political assassination and 
corruption — means you are incapable of adopting, for which 
I congratulate you. But even if you possessed the qualities 
of a born dictator, you would lack time, for remember that 
it took General Diaz eight years, and not a month, to es- 
tablish his dictatorship, the first years of his government 
bearing no semblance to a dictatorship. 

"I do not believe that you can establish a democratic gov- 
ernment, because the chief element is lacking, a democratic 
public; but I do believe that you could essay the establish- 
ment of a government along parliamentary lines, such as 
that of Chile, Argentine or Brazil. This attempt is impos- 
sible without taking the Catholics into account to form a 
Catholic party, deficient, but still a party. 



MADERISM 163 

"It is absurd for Mexican liberals, so enamored of the 
parliamentary form, to talk of launching it with only one 
political party. This talk of one political party is an ab- 
surdity. Every political party that aims at destroying its 
opponent in order to be supreme, degenerates, becomes cor- 
rupt, divides into personal factions and presents a truly 
repellant aspect, as the liberal party has done and is doing. 
Without a party opposed to the liberal party, to act as a 
balance, all attempts to float a parliamentary form of gov- 
ernment are crass stupidity. 

"The Catholics have also been revolutionists because they 
did not want the dictatorship of General Diaz and gave 
you their moral support. This is proved by the fact that 
the newspaper that most virulently attacked the dictator 
was the Catholic newspaper. El Pais. The revolutionary 
ideal of vengeance and pillage was not theirs; neither did 
they wish to reestablish the Inquisition and the reactionary 
government of Ferdinand VII, They are educated and 
intelligent; they accept the Constitution and the separation 
of Church and State, because in the present rotten condition 
of politics, it would be highly undesirable for the Catholic 
clergy, who have for so many years been patriotic and 
virtuous, to submit to having the Government appoint bu- 
reaucratic bishops, impregnated with the bureaucratic spirit, 
capable of dragging the Church into that filthy mire. The 
Catholic clergy has no end in view but that of introducing 
religious instruction into the schools, and would be satisfied 
even if this instruction were not to be made obligatory, 
simply left to the will of the parents, provided at their ex- 
pense or that of the religious lay associations. You are well 
aware that I do not belong to the Catholic party; but it 
seems to me intolerable that merely in order to support the 
principle of the lay school we should be obliged to submit 
to the folly of trying to establish a parliamentary form of 
government with an exclusive faction, misnamed the liberal, 



i66 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

House of Representatives just as they were about to take 
up the discussion of a projected law to prevent the Catho- 
lics from organizing the Catholic party. I addressed the 
House, taking as my theme the necessity of the existence 
of the Catholic party for the establishment in Mexico of a 
responsible government. I talked at some length, my words 
producing an effect, as the dropping of the projected law 
proved. The Catholic party was formed, and undoubtedly 
worked for the good of the country. 

THE BANEFUL INFLUENCE OF GUSTAVO MADERO 

One month after my speech in the House of Representa- 
tives Senor Gustavo Madero, who was dining at my house, 
said in presence of Senor Melgarejo that he was convinced 
that General Diaz was amply justified when he said, as he 
was leaving the country in June, 191 1: "The new men 
will soon be convinced that the only way to rule the Mexi- 
can people is the way I have ruled them." I said to Senor 
Gustavo Madero that in all probability General Diaz was 
right, but that even if he were right, he had governed the 
country by means of a dictatorship that it had taken eight 
years, with the loyal support of General Manuel Gonzalez, 
to establish. I further said that I did not pretend to say 
that eight years was the set time for the establishment of a 
dictatorship in Latin-America, but that I did know that it 
could not be done in eight months, or in sixteen, or in twen- 
ty-four, and that he was attempting to create his brother a 
dictator before he was a president, and that, what was even 
worse, he was employing the repugnant, irritating methods 
that had driven the people to give their support to any meas- 
ure that would insure the overthrow of the dictator. Senor 
Madero, then basking in the sunshine of prosperity and 
adulation, called me a pessimist, and followed the road he 
had mapped out until, loathed by all, he fell into the hands 
of assassins on the fateful night of February 18, 191 3. 



MADERISM 167 

I believe that it was the influence of Senor Gustavo Ma- 
dero that was the chief cause of the political and personal 
ruin of his brother. President Madero was always hon- 
est in the matter of the management of public funds and 
of not permitting Government frauds; but he was undoubt- 
edly disloyal, not against the revolution, but against his ov^m 
ideals, which had been held out as the panacea for all Mex- 
ico's troubles. 

Senor Madero permitted the Catholic party to be or- 
ganized, and no sooner was it organized than he tried, un- 
der the cloak of its prestige, to force the candidacy of Senor 
Jose Maria Pino Suarez for the vice-presidency. The Catho- 
lic party declined to be coerced and put forward as its can- 
didate the ex-president, Senor Francisco L. de la Barra, 
who had earned the good will and applause of all during 
his term of president ad interim. Senor Gustavo Madero, 
ill advised and aiming to punish the Catholic party, stirred 
up a popular demonstration hostile to de la Barra, to the 
Catholics, to the rich, to the aristocracy — in a word, a 
demagogic demonstration of the vilest nature. 

The Catholic party entered the elections of 19 12 in ab- 
solutely good faith, as it had done the elections for state 
governors. In these it had demonstrated its power. It 
carried the elections in the states of Jalisco, Mexico, Quere- 
taro and Zacatecas, and would have won except for the 
introduction of official pressure, which violated the free- 
dom of the vote, in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacan 
and Puebla. In the state of Oaxaca, except for the pres- 
tige of the name of Juarez, which descended to his son, the 
Catholic party would have won in the elections for gov- 
ernor. It was amply proved that the Catholic party pos- 
sessed the force to elect its candidates in the richest and 
most densely populated states of the Republic. In the Fed- 
eral elections of 191 2, except for enormous official pressure, 
the Catholics would have obtained the majority in the 



i68 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

House of Representatives, and at least one-third representa- 
tion in the Senate. 

The course followed by Senor Gustavo Madero, as well 
as by his brother Francisco, was indeed despicable. Of the 
one hundred seats in the House of Representatives fairly 
won by the Catholics, the censoring board, having recourse 
to the most barefaced frauds, nullified more than Torty of 
the electoral college votes. The Catholics then held sixty 
places when they appeared before the electoral college of the 
Lower House, and here, in the most shameful, dirty, illegal 
and despotic manner, the majority of their votes were dis- 
credited and thrown out, leaving them only twenty-three. 
The same tactics were followed with the Independents, with 
the ultimate result that the Catholic and Independent rep- 
resentation, combined, was reduced to forty-two out of a 
total of two hundred and thirty-three. 

Senor Gustavo Madero, counting always upon the sup- 
port of his brother, intervened in the elections of San Luis 
Potosi and Aguascalientes to place in office personal friends 
who had been rejected by the people of both states. He also 
intervened in the elections of Vera Cruz, the gross viola- 
tion of electoral freedom causing a veritable scandal. To 
prevent the triumph of the Catholic candidate in Puebla, it 
was necessary for the Madero faction to join hands with 
the discredited party headed by General Mucio Matinez, 
one of the pro-consuls of the overthrown dictatorship. In 
Yucatan every low trick was resorted to to defeat Senor 
Delio Moreno Canton in order to install Senor Jose M. 
Pino Suarez's brother-in-law as Governor. In the states 
of Chiapas, Sinaloa, Oaxaca, Mexico, Jalisco, Tlaxcala and 
Tamaulipas election frauds also took place equal to those 
practised in the palmy days of the Porfirian dictatorship. 

In 1893 the Cientificos obtained the vote of the House of 
Representatives for an amendment of the Constitution which 



MADERISM 169 

would guarantee the independence of the judiciary. The 
bill was sent to the Senate, where it was held up by Gen- 
eral Diaz. He did not reject it, because he did not want 
to offend the Cientificos. When Madero was made presi- 
dent the senators, who under the old regime belonged to 
the Cientificos, once more introduced the measure of con- 
stitutional amendment with regard to the independence of 
the judiciary, and it was ignominiously rejected by presi- 
dential decree. 

This clearly proves that the hidden project of the Ma- 
deristas had been to keep the judiciary under their thumb, 
just as had been done by the Diaz dictatorship. 

It is true that Senor Madero granted complete freedom 
to the press, but it is also true that he attempted to throttle 
it to the point of asphjociation. The undeniable proof of 
this is the fact that the Department of the Interior intro- 
duced a bill in the House of Representatives, aiming to cur- 
tail the privileges of the press, signed by Senor Jesus Flores 
Magon, the Secretary of the Interior. When Senor Flores 
Magon resigned the portfolio of the Interior, he explained 
his anti-liberal conduct to the public by saying that he had 
been compelled to sign the much-censured measure in order 
to save the press and the persons connected with it from a 
campaign against them proposed by Senor Jose M. Pino 
Suarez, the Secretary of Public Instruction, which would 
have been more harmful to them. 

It is undeniable that Gustavo Madero was guilty of the 
unpardonable fault of not wanting to give public account of 
the 700,000 pesos he received from the Federal Treasury 
to defray the expenses incurred by the revolution. It is also 
undeniable that he undertook the promotion of numerous 
business undertakings submitted to him by persons who did 
not stand well in the public estimation. 

The most censurable feature of Gustavo Madero's ad- 
ministration, however, was the organization of the "Porra," 



I70 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

an association of demagogues enlisted for the purpose of ter- 
rorizing society and the enemies of the Government, replac- 
ing the fear of bayonets with the terror of mobs. Ruffians 
were hired at seventy-five cents per head to simulate a 
grievance, collect a crowd and march through the streets, 
and, in the name of the aggrieved populace, they not only 
damaged property but endangered life. It would have been 
censurable enough and entirely unwarranted by the situa- 
tion, in view of his social station, his excellent training, his 
good sentiments and his position as the President's brother, 
had Gustavo Madero actually transformed himself into the 
Mexican Marat; but it is simply astounding that he should 
have been willing to appear in the role of a sham Marat. 
This gained for him only the intense hatred of the people, 
and explains why his foul murder was looked upon with 
indifference, if not actual approval, by the public. 

It is also undeniable that the Madero Government proved 
itself impotent to restore peace. From the revolt of Zapata 
in August, 191 1, to the fall of Madero in 19 13, there was 
not a single day of peace, life and property being in constant 
danger. 

By railing at the army, during the revolution and after its 
triumph, and accusing it of treason, cowardice and vileness 
for not having turned against Diaz and relieved the nation 
of the burden of his dictatorship, President Madero had 
incurred its ill-will and Jiatred. 

Neither President Madero nor his honest followers had 
any right to censure the defection of Huerta, because the 
doctrine of "the Apostle" was that every military man 
was obliged to judge the Government's conduct, and, if he 
found it unpatriotic, to transfer his allegiance unhesitatingly 
in order to save the country. Huerta could have said to 
Madero: "I have acted toward you as you wanted me to act 
toward General Diaz." 



MADERISM 171 

THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF MADERISM 

I have exposed the principal errors and faults of the ad- 
ministration of President Madero. Were they serious 
enough to have justified an uprising? 

On April 2, 191 1, I introduced a measure in the House 
of Representatives for non-reelection of President and Vice- 
President, and in the expository section I said that I did not 
believe in the Mexican people's fitness for democracy, neither, 
on the other hand, did I believe in their absolute lack of 
capacity to progress in a political sense. I explained that 
the liberal Latin-American politicians, on account of their 
Jacobin theories and tendencies, were guilty of the incon- 
ceivable stupidity of believing that a people that had lived 
for thirty years under the yoke of an harmonious dictator- 
ship such as that of General Diaz (because if it had not been 
harmonious it could not have endured for thirty years) could 
perform a virtual acrobatic feat and pass from a despotic 
system of government to the correct parliamentary form 
existing in England, or to the federal democracy of the 
United States. As I was a believer in evolution, I thought 
Mexico ought to aim, as it was evolving from a rigid dic- 
tatorship, at establishing a form of government similar to 
that of Chile, Argentine or Brazil, so-called democracies, 
in which real political parties do not exist, where the elec- 
tions are repulsively fraudulent, owing to the bribery of 
electors, and where scandalously corrupt bureaucracies dom- 
inate. In these nations two practical principles are upheld, 
non-reelection and freedom of the press. The Mexicans 
ought to make a trial of liberty, combined with corrupt 
democracy, upheld by freedom of the press and non-reelection. 
If success crowned the effort, they should adopt a govern- 
ment similar to that of these nations, accepting as unavoid- 
able its inherent abuses. If the trial ended in failure, there 
was no alternative but to go back to the dictatorship, under 



172 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the condition that if the dictator did not keep up with the 
advance of civilization, he should be overthrown, and this 
policy continued until the right man was found. 

I have repeated my words, spoken publicly before the 
House of Representatives, in order to establish what in my 
mind is the criterion by which the Madero administration is 
to be judged. Dupuy has said: "A revolution to be legiti- 
mate must establish something better than what it over- 
throws." 

I have said that in 1 910 of the twenty-seven governors 
the great majority were useless, or almost useless, old men. 
The list of governors under the Madero administration, as 
it appeared on January i, 191 3, was composed of seven gov- 
ernors who were between fifty and sixty years of age; one 
was sixty-two, nineteen were between thirty and fifty. 
There was not one under thirty. Twenty-two were entirely 
new men; five belonged to the old regime, but were men 
noted for their fitness and uprightness. With regard to age 
and personnel the revolution, then, effected a wholesome 
change. Of the twenty-seven governors appointed by Ma- 
dero, nineteen had irreproachable reputations ; eight were out 
and out scoundrels. In 19 10, under General Diaz, eighteen 
were upright and nine were rascals. Of the eight unworthy 
governors of the Madero regime, six were imposed by pres- 
sure brought to bear by Gustavo Madero, and two were 
elected by free vote. Therefore, in this electoral test, essayed 
in the name of liberty, notwithstanding the fact that the 
avowed principles of the initiators of the revolution, not of 
Madero's following, were "vengeance and pillage," and not- 
withstanding the deficiencies of the electoral system due to 
the incapacity of the people, the lack of real political parties 
and the want of practice, out of twenty-one governors not 
imposed by the Government, nineteen who were independ- 
ent of Gustavo Madero's coercion were successfully elected. 

The secretaries of the various departments under Madero 



MADERISM 173 

were all men of talent. The honesty of six was unjustly 
impugned, and two were attacked without proof of their 
guilt being established by their enemies. In the time of Gen- 
eral Diaz, of the eight departmental secretaries, four were 
accused of dishonesty, proof, however, not being brought 
forward to substantiate the allegation. 

The Supreme Federal Court in the time of General Diaz 
was servile in its docility to the decrees of higher authority 
even when it was a question of an unjust sentence. Not- 
withstanding the fact that Madero rejected the Senate's 
measure to free the judiciary from the control of the Chief 
Executive, there is no record of President Madero, his 
brother Gustavo, or any official or person of high rank hav- 
ing made use of this prerogative in regard to affairs of a 
private or personal nature. In political affairs President 
Madero ineffectually brought pressure to bear on the Su- 
preme Federal Court in the case of General Felix Diaz, who 
had been captured at Vera Cruz, court-martialed and sen- 
tenced to death. From 1882 to 191 1, when it recovered its 
independence and honor in so far as it was able, the Supreme 
Federal Court was the instriunent for all the vile, dirty work 
of the Chief Executive. 

This tribunal took special pains to despatch quickly and 
correctly, and according to the rules of favoritism, all the 
business of the dictatorship it had on hand at the time of 
General Diaz's downfall. It should be noted that from the 
fall of General Diaz to that of Madero there was justice in 
Mexico. This alone would be sufficient reason for applaud- 
ing a revolution, especially as the watchword of its progeni- 
tors had been "vengeance and pillage." 

The Catholic party, as I have said, was deprived of its 
electoral votes, outraged by hostile demonstrations on the 
part of the people, and the broken promises of the President, 
given before and after his triumph. In General Diaz's time 
the Catholics were forbidden to organize political parties 



174 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

and also to found political newspapers for the furtherance of 
their cause. They were admitted into the two Houses of 
Congress, the Judiciary, the Diplomatic and Administrative 
service as the unconditional subjects of the dictatorship, 
bound strictly by the Porfirian precept, "No politics, all 
Government," which was only another way of saying, "No 
personal rights, all obedience." This is a variant of the 
motto of Charles HI of Spain, held up to the colonists of the 
Indies, "Obey and be silent." Notwithstanding the disloy- 
alty of "the Apostle" toward the Catholics, thanks to the 
freedom they enjoyed under his rule, they managed to or- 
ganize their party, although in a somewhat deficient man- 
ner. Twenty-three of their number obtained seats in the 
House of Representatives. Some of these were good orators 
who made their voices reach to the utmost confines of the 
Republic, fighting for the triumph of their principles, their 
heads held high in the consciousness of their restored rights. 
Their situation was vastly superior to that which for thirty- 
three years they had endured under the dictatorship of Gen- 
eral Diaz. 

It is true that President Madero introduced a bill into the 
lower house directed against the freedom of the press. But 
when he was confronted by the violent attitude of the press 
and of public opinion, he withdrew the unpopular measure. 
After submitting for thirty-three years to the yoke of a 
Government-censured press, the public wanted to reap the 
benefits of a free press, however unworthy of freedom it 
might be. 

The Lower House after the elections of 191 2 bore more 
semblance to a ward club than to a respectable legislative 
body. Good speeches, however, were heard, crude polemics 
introduced, wrongs openly discussed ; all of these being signs 
of life grateful to the ear after the oppressive silence of 
thirty years. This body, although the Government held an 
overwhelming majority, was not subservient, neither did it 



MADERISM 175 

present the appearance of a pack of donkeys peacefully doz- 
ing after a comfortable meal. Gustavo Madero's porra 
(mob) parliament, except for a few worn-out and discarded 
specimens of the dictatorial regime, resembled a drove of 
spirited ponies, noble despite their viciousness. Notwith- 
standing its crudeness, this attempt at free parliamentary ex- 
pression was a step forward as compared with the degrada- 
tion imposed by the Porfirian methods. 

MADERISM MIGHT HAVE PACIFIED THE COUNTRY 

Undoubtedly the government of President Madero was 
very far from representing a democracy; but on the other 
hand it was just as far from representing the dictatorship 
of General Diaz, either in its flourishing or decadent stage. 

Of the leading principles of the governments of the South 
American Republics, non-reelection and the freedom of the 
press, the latter appeared already to have been realized, and 
the former in all probability soon would be. In political 
circles it was feared that Gustavo Madero, supported 
by his family and official influence, would succeed his 
brother in the presidency. Even if such had been the 
case it would always have been a step forward, because no 
two men, even if they are brothers, would give the same or 
even a similar form of government. This was exemplified in 
the time of the dictatorship by the government of the broth- 
ers Diez Gutierrez in the state of San Luis Potosi, and that 
of the three Cravioto brothers in the state of Hidalgo. It 
was also more than probable that no member of the Madero 
family would have succeeded Gustavo Madero. 

From the preceding facts, stated with absolute impartial- 
ity, it will be seen that the Madero Government fulfilled the 
Dupuy condition; it gave something better than that which 
it overthrew. The dreadful feature of this regime was the 
want of peace, so essential as the fundamental basis of gov- 



176 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

eminent and society. Without peace the brink of the abyss 
is soon reached, and the mere fact that a Government is im- 
potent to restore peace is enough to justify a revolution. 

Why was President Madero unable to pacify the coun- 
try and prevent the revolutionary movements of Zapata, 
Orozco, Vazquez Gomez, Felix Diaz and Reyes? All these 
disturbances could in my estimation have been avoided if 
the Madero administration had been able to count upon pol- 
iticians of high calibre. Zapata issued his Plan de Ayala 
on November 25, 191 1, and, as I remarked in my article 
in El Pais, this plan is worthy of study and approbation, 
with the exception of one absurd clause: "The claimant is 
to be put in possession of the disputed property, rural or 
urban, from the moment he makes his claim, unless the dis- 
possessed has proved his claim to it before a revolutionary 
tribunal." 

The Plan de Ayala required that the planters, having re- 
ceived indemnity, should hand over one-third of their arable 
land to the villages or to the poor. The planters of Morelos 
developed only one-fifth of the arable land in the cultivation 
of sugar-cane and rice, and could, therefore, without hurting 
their own interest in the slightest, meet the requirements of 
the Plan de Ayala, always provided, of course, that thfe 
absurd clause referring to disputed titles was omitted. In 
Part First I have stated that the distribution of land in gen- 
eral is not feasible, because the greatest portion of it is in 
the temperate and cold zones, and cannot be advantageously 
cultivated without the installation of irrigation plants. It 
is precisely in Morelos that the land might be advanta- 
geously distributed for the following reason: The climate 
is semi-tropical, and the land not completely exhausted, as 
it is still capable of producing from 16 to 20 hectoliters of 
corn per hectare. It is not exposed to frosts because of its 
situation, and the rainfall is less irregular and more abundant 
than in other sections. The state of Morelos is one of the 



MADERISM 177 

few states in the Republic in which the distribution of land 
might be undertaken at once with great possibilities of a suc- 
cessful issue. 

Zapata demanded that the Federal forces should not put 
foot in the state of Morelos, and that the elections should be 
entirely free. It is evident that the acceptance of the first 
condition was humiliating for the Government and the Mex- 
ican nation ; but political situations sometimes present humil- 
iating circumstances that must be met with courage and pa- 
triotism. In La PrensOj in the capacity of editor, I upheld 
Zapata's demands and insisted upon the necessity of some- 
times bowing to the inevitable, citing several examples. For 
instance, the conduct of the notably patriotic governor of 
Jalisco, Senor Pedro Ogazon, who signed a compact with the 
bandit Manuel Lozada, chief of the Sierra de Alica, and 
owner of the territory of Tepic, recognizing the absolute 
sovereignty of Lozada in the confines of Tepic. Also 
Juarez's conduct in recognizing the absolute sovereignty of 
General Santiago Vidaurri, governor of Nuevo Leon and 
Coahuila; of General Servando Canales, governor of Ta- 
maulipas; and that of Generals Terrazas, Pesqueira, Vega, 
Alvarez and Mendez, the respective chiefs of the states of 
Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Guerrero and Sierra de Puebla. 
In 1869, after the struggle in the state of Tamaulipas, as 
bloody and savage as that of Zapata, in which the Federal 
forces fought those led by Braulio Vargas and other bandit 
chiefs in revolt against the legitimate governor of the state, 
Jose de la Garza, the President obliged Garza to satisfy the 
demands of the bandits by resigning. 

I may be quite mistaken, but it is my conviction that if 
Zapata's demands, with the exception of the one absurd 
clause already noted, had been granted at the time, Zapata 
would have submitted; or perhaps it would be more exact 
to say that the Government would have submitted. But 
at any rate it would have been an honorable submission, be- 



178 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

cause a deed of justice or of intelligent patriotic policy cannot 
be anything but an honor to the one who executes it. 

The first revolt of Reyes could have been prevented by 
not permitting him to return in 191 1. This, however, was 
not a serious mistake, because when General Reyes raised 
the standard of revolt in December, 191 1, he found that he 
stood alone, or, more properly speaking, disillusioned, for he 
saw the country no longer wanted him and that he was as 
unpopular, if not more so, than the Cientificos. 

As Orozco was the "military genius" of the Madero rev- 
olution, following historic precedents he had to rebel against 
Madero and demand the presidency. Madero, who in the 
days of his popularity was irresistible and could have anni- 
hilated any rival, should have settled the Orozco problem 
definitely. Instead of giving him only 50,0(X) pesos when he 
asked for 100,000, the amount that was given without any 
justification to Jose M. Maytorena, "the Apostle" should 
have given the "military genius" 500,000 pesos, on condition 
that he take himself off to Europe for two years for the pur- 
pose of educating himself in order to receive the post of Di- 
vision General or Grand Marshal of the Mexican army. 
This might not have pleased the Federal chiefs, but this dis- 
pleasure could not have occasioned any serious trouble, as 
was proved when Huerta irregularly raised Orozco, Cara- 
veo, Cheche Campos, Campa and others to the rank of gen- 
erals. 

With regard to General Reyes and Felix Diaz, their in- 
ordinate ambition, their indomitable spirit of intrigue, their 
endless conspiracies, their decision to take the presidency by 
storm were well known. Reyes and Felix Diaz never would 
have overthrown Benito Juarez or Porfirio Diaz in their 
heyday, because they would have found it very difKcult to 
carry out the first revolt; and a second would have been 
impossible, because dead men cannot revolt. Madero cap- 
tured Reyes and Diaz knowing, as he publicly acknowledged. 



MADERISM 179 

that they were conspiring against him. Nevertheless he 
scorned them. The ruler who scorns not only danger, but 
the greatest danger that threatens in countries where the 
stable government is constantly endangered by the military 
power, is not fit to rule. 

REGICIDE AND ANARCHY ADDED TO THE REVOLUTIONARY 
PROGRAM 

Senor Ernesto Fernandez Arteaga told me that many 
years ago when Madero was still quite young and with no 
thought of becoming a revolutionist, while visiting the house 
of his father, Senor Ramon Fernandez, a highly educated 
and intelligent man, he proposed to Dr. Fernandez's sons 
that they consult the spirits by means of the famous plan- 
chette. One of the questions asked evoked the answer that 
Francisco Madero would one day be the President of the 
Mexican Republic. Madero was greatly flattered by this 
prognostication and took it quite seriously, much to the 
amusement of Dr. Fernandez, who advised him to regard 
with well-merited contempt all spiritistic revelations. Ma- 
dero replied that under no circumstances would he disregard 
the supreme decisions of the high science of spiritism. From 
the day of the casting of this horoscope, so fateful for his 
country, Madero many times reminded his friend, Senor 
Fernandez Arteaga, of the spiritistic prophecy that he 
(Madero) would one day be the president of Mexico. 

Madero, then, was of the illumined, with the aggravating 
circumstance that he was also of the predestined. His am- 
bition, therefore, was fired by the belief in the sacredness, the 
supernaturalness, the inevitableness of his cause. Under 
these circumstances he could not be a statesman or, what 
amounts to the same, a man who as circumstances unfold 
themselves can adapt himself to them, showing mercy or 
cruelty, pliability or inflexibility. The predestined one is 
guided unerringly, by the hand of God or the hand of Fate, 
and omnipotence cannot fail. The predestined one feels strong 



i8o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

enough to despise all manner of obstacles that may cross his 
pathway, to look upon everything human, great or small, as 
infinitesimal, unworthy of care or thought. Obeying the 
laws of this condition of mind, Madero was bound to de- 
spise or to be indifferent to all the Mexican intellectuals, 
and to be resolved to govern only with the aid of the in- 
telligence of the supernatural beings who guided him. I 
have proved that the Madero Government, except for its 
inability to preserve peace, was superior to that of Diaz, and 
should have been aided in restoring peace, not overthrown. 
The Madero Government was demolished by the efforts of 
the intellectuals, who sought to place it before the nation 
as the worst Government Mexico had had since the Dec- 
laration of Independence. This destruction of Madero's 
prestige in the eyes of the nation was the great and memora- 
ble revenge of the intellectuals for the "illumined Apostle's" 
contempt for them. 

Senor Fernandez Giiell, ex-director of the Mexican Na- 
tional Library in the City of Mexico, a frantic partisan of 
Madero, and the author of an apologetic book dedicated to 
"the admired martyr," says: "At the time of the up- 
rising in Vera Cruz, the Federal Government relied entirely 
upon the loyalty of the army. 

"All the glory of the revolutionary leader had vanished 
like a cloud. Surrounded by Cientificos, far from the masses, 
the Apostle appeared before the public on official occasions 
only, and the people of Mexico watched him with profound 
indifference as he rode down the Avenida de San Francisco 
on February 5 th in an open carriage, between two files of 
soldiers, followed by the Diplomatic Corps, a squadron of 
the Presidential Guard, the Chapultepec Cadets and a divi- 
sion of artillery. 

"Salvos no longer greeted him; neither did gratitude or 

enthusiasm rain down flowers on his noble brow."^ 

1 R. Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolucion Mexicana, 
p. 185. 



MADERISM i8i 

Senor Fernandez Giiell states what every one in Mexico 
knew to be a fact, that by October, 19 12, less than a year 
after he had assumed the presidency, Madero was completely 
disparaged in the eyes of all classes of society, from the 
highest to the lowest. 

Senor Jose N. Macias, an ex-representative of the Diaz 
regime, an ex-Maderista, and now a fervent admirer of 
Carranza, by whom he has been named director of the 
School of Jurisprudence in the City of Mexico, says, re- 
ferring to the fall of Madero: "A president elected for five 
years, overthrown in fifteen months, has no one to blame but 
himself. The cause is this, and history, if it is unbiased, will 
proclaim it: he did not know how to uphold himself." ^ 



THE ATTITUDE OF THE INTELLECTUALS WAS MALEVOLENT 

The intellectuals cannot be blamed for having opposed 
President Madero's Government, because it is not possible 
to have a responsible, representative government without op- 
position. A government without opposition is a despotic 
government. Moral law cites many principles for the guid- 
ance of patriotic government opposition, but these have not 
found acceptance among the politicians of any nation. Poli- 
tics is the most engrossing of all occupations, the one that 
becomes a veritable passion, that exalts, that blinds, one that, 
in the opinion of medical experts, is capable of turning men 
into wild beasts. On the other hand, in countries where the 
government practically never changes except through revo- 
lutions, opposition, the object of which is change, would 
prove ridiculous, inoilensive and ineffectual, if its principal 
aim were not the overthrow of the government by the only 
means known to history — a revolution. 

1 Fernandez Cabrera, Mi Viaje a Mexico, p. 218. 



i82 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The theorem of May is well known : "The power of the 
press can be balanced only by the power of the press." 
In other words, the opposition press should work against the 
government press. This is only possible in countries where 
two distinct political parties exist, and where the opinions 
of the newspapers representing both sides carry equal weight 
with the people. In Latin-America, and especially in coun- 
tries ruled by dictators, the people, as a whole, condemn the 
existence of a government press. They hate and despise it, 
and reject its opinions as productive of revolutionary sen- 
timents. 

No Mexican Government can defend itself against an op- 
position press except by silencing it; not by radical means, 
but by corruption or by buying up all newspapers. These 
do not appear as Government organs, but independent 
or opposing, cultivating the species of opposition set forth 
in moral law books. This difficult problem, in countries 
where government intervention is a drawback rather than 
a help, can be solved only by silencing the journalists, 
or making them subservient by means of bribes. In Spain 
this fund appears in the secret expense account under the 
heading, "Reptile Fund." In Mexico, from the time of the 
Declaration of Independence, all the governments, conserv- 
ative, liberal and dictatorial, including that of Juarez, pro- 
vided for their own protection, and to insure peace for the 
country, a substantial "reptile fund." General Diaz used 
to say: "Give a dog a bone and he will neither bite nor 
bark." 

Cases of journalists and newspaper owners in Latin- 
America who cannot be bought could be cited, but they are 
the exception. Generally speaking, they belong to the seri- 
ous, non-seditious class, because they are supported by com- 
mercial advertisements and plutocratic interests which are 
intelligently conservative and opposed to revolutions. 

The Madero Government was signalized by incom- 



MADERISM 183 

petency; but freedom of the press as it now exists would 
have been in itself sufficient to compass its ruin, even if it 
had been the most perfect government in the history of the 
political world. 

The intellectuals should not be blamed for opposing 
the Madero Government, because the opposition had in 
view the conquest of the supreme power. It is true that this 
policy is condemned by moral law and public ethics, but it 
is the inexorable law of politics everywhere. All opposi- 
tion has for its object the conquest of the supreme power, 
making use of the means demanded by the situation. Ac- 
cording to a rigorous moral standard, then, the methods of 
all politicians are unethical, excepting in a few rare instances, 
which in Latin-America are the exception and not the rule. 
The great fault to be found with the intellectuals who 
accomplished the downfall of Madero is that their work 
was destructive, not constructive. 

In the Senate the leading intellectuals of the opposi- 
tion were Senores Manuel Calero, Gumersindo Enriquez, 
Francisco Leon de la Barr, J. Flores Magon and Guillermo 
Obregon. Three gave open expression to their views; two 
had recourse to clever political evasions. These five men did 
not belong to any political party, faction or coterie, neither 
were they united among themselves. They represented an 
alliance of individual forces formed for the sole purpose of 
overthrowing Madero, but having a horror of acting as a 
useful political organ. 

In the House of Representatives, which possesses the ad- 
vantage of exercising the same influence over the public 
mind as a great national theatre, the floor was held by the 
famous quartet, Senores Querido Moheno, Jose M. Lozano, 
Francisco Olaguibel and Nemasio Garcia Naranjo. They 
were veteran politicians and veritable powers by reason of 
their oratorical force. Being fine tacticians, they never lost 
an opportunity of surprising their weaker antagonists, wh©, 



i84 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

with the exception of Cabrera, laid themselves open to ridi- 
cule every time they attempted to speak or introduce a bill, 
their humiliation being the humiliation of the Government 
they represented. When free speech is allowed in the House, 
the Chief Executive, if he does not govern with alternating 
political parties, should endeavor to be represented by the 
best politicians and the best orators. This can be easily ac- 
complished by selecting for the Cabinet those who have dis- 
tinguished themselves as orators or politicians; and when, 
through enmity or personal dislike, objection is made to their 
participation, the Government should work in the elections 
to seat in the Lower House men who are able to represent it 
brilliantly and capably. If this cannot be done, in Latin- 
America recourse can be had to the usual practice of dis- 
crediting the electoral votes of candidates antagonistic to the 
Government. Gustavo Madero made a veritable holocaust 
of the votes of more than fifty undesirable candidates, and 
approved those of Lozano, Olaguibel and Garcia Naranjo. 

The attitude of the Catholic party in the Lower House 
in 19 1 2 and 19 13 was censurable. They attempted to assume 
an independent attitude, something that may be done by 
individuals, but not by political parties, because the very 
reason of their being is to represent and fight for party prin- 
ciples. Where there are political parties, independent mem- 
bers always exist who by their very anxiety to preserve their 
independence cut themselves off from all parties. A political 
party's duty in the time of battle is to preserve a militant, 
resolute and loyal attitude. 

The Catholic party in 1912 and 1913 did not do its duty. 
On behalf of religion, it was its duty to oppose the anti- 
religious revolution in the north; on behalf of society, it 
was its duty to be conservative, especially as the Zapatistas 
in the south and the revolutionists in the north were attack- 
ing the rights of property ; and on behalf of the Government, 
it was its duty to uphold it, because, not being able to lay 



MADERISM 185 

claim to the power of governing in the case of Madero's 
overthrow, it was its duty to prevent anarchy. Its place 
was at the side of Madero, but instead of meeting its obli- 
gation, it followed a vacillating policy that contributed 
greatly to the downfall of the Government. 

The quartet in the House of Representatives marched 
united, though unconsciously, toward an abyss. This quad- 
rilateral group did not go hand in hand with the pentagonal 
group in the Senate or with the angle formed by the League 
for Social Defense, founded by Seiiores Jorge Vera Estanol 
and Alberto Garcia Granados. 

Close observation confirmed the suspicion that a certain 
undefined political affinity existed between members of a 
group that might be called the ex-secretarial party, com- 
posed of ex-Secretaries Calero, Flores Magon, Garcia Grana- 
dos, Vera Estanol and ex-President de la Barra. This 
pentagonal group of ex-secretaries, as well as the quadri- 
lateral group of the Lower House, tore down without 
building up. They lost, instead of gaining popularity, be- 
cause society with its conservative instinct saw that if the 
incompetency of Madero was leading the country they knew 
not where, the cleverness of these men was leading it to 
anarchy. They did not take the trouble to organize a party, 
or even a faction, or to raise up the "man of iron" who 
would dominate the situation. Their program was to tear 
down — tear down first and last, until not a shred of prestige, 
authority or force should be left to the state. 

This work of demolition on the part of the intellectual 
parliamentarians was inspired by contempt. The work of 
demolition inspired by hate was done by the press — not by 
the representative press but the yellow press, represented by 
El Pais, El Manana, El Heraldo, La Tribuna and a host 
of unimportant comic papers of the coarser type. Some 
stooped so low as to represent the President's wife as a dog, 
always close to her husband's side. 



i86 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Senoir Fernandez Giiell, a confirmed Maderista, wrote, 
referring to the tactics pursued by Sanchez Santos, the edi- 
tor of El Pais, against Gustavo Madero, whom he nicknamed 
"Ojo parado" (Dead eye), because of a physical defect: 
"Sanchez Santos persecuted him with implacable rage, even 
beyond the grave. He is responsible for his tragic end, be- 
cause the cruel and bloody epithets which he directed against 
him, and which awakened the fury of his murderers, quivered 
like poisoned arrows in the inanimate body of the unhappy 
Gustavo." 1 

He also said: "Senor Madero holds as a governmental 
principle that the 'press can only be fought with the press,* 
but the mendacious audacity of the editors of Multicolor 
reached such a point that the President, taking into consid- 
eration that they were foreigners, resolved to have recourse 
to the Thirty- third Article of the Mexican Constitution and 
expel them from the country." ^ 

Those who read these newspapers, whose flaming words 
were intended to electrify the masses and arouse their basest 
passions, whose route of circulation was marked by a fiery 
trail, whose incendiary opinions were everywhere discussed, 
will be my witnesses that the doctrine preached by this 
anarchistic press was regicide. 

It mattered little to such a press that Zapata was a ban- 
dit, he must be eulogized, his crimes must be ennobled, his 
exploits made to dazzle and his personality deified in the 
eyes of the masses. The same course was followed with 
Inez Salazar, Campa, Pablo Lavin and also with Cheche 
Campos, who was acclaimed as one of the greatest reform- 
ers the world had ever seen because he laid waste the entire 
state of Durango, boasting that he had applied the torch 

* R. Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolucion Mexicana, 
p. 170. 

2 Idem, p. 144 



MADERISM 187 

with his own hand to seventy-four plantations. All these 
monsters were declared to be good, capable of governing, 
the true democrats for whom the country had been sighing, 
the enlightened guides who were to conduct the people along 
the road of duty and constitutionalism. Madero alone was 
evil. He was a reptile which, according to the advice of 
El Heraldo, ought to be stepped upon. He should be over- 
thrown, said La Tribuna; cast out at once, said El Mahana. 
It was a savage campaign in the interests of regicide. 

The revolution had added two more great principles to 
its code, and any honest, intelligent man could read on 
its unfurled banner: "Vengeance, pillage, regicide, anarchy!" 

It was known in Mexico that the Morelos campaign was 
a school of disloyalty, cowardice, pillage, disorganization and 
brigandage for the army. It was even believed that, as in 
times past, it would desert at the voice of a leader, al- 
though it had proved when Felix Diaz revolted at Vera 
Cruz that it would not accept him for its leader. It 
had also proved that General Reyes no longer appealed to 
it, that he did not inspire it with enthusiasm or respect, and 
that it would not at his command desert its chief. It 
was believed that this loyalty was accidental; that it was 
due to the lack of a leader, whom the press was either un- 
willing or unable to supply in its efforts to overthrow Ma- 
dero. Realizing their unpopularity, Reyes, Diaz and Mon- 
dragon understood that it would be impossible for them to 
launch a revolution outside the capital. Reyes and Diaz 
felt that they would be scorned by the public and the army, 
as had already been the case, and Mondragon knew that he 
was unpopular in both civil and military circles. There was 
only one means by which these leaders — more unpopular 
than the unpopular Madero himself — could overthrow him, 
and that was recourse to a coup de main. This does not 
require popularity but only iniquity, and perhaps cowardice, 
to effect. The coup de main of an unpopular leader against 



1 88 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

an unpopular ruler necessitates the assassination of the latter. 
Otherwise he will attempt to reestablish himself, supported 
by the people, who are horrified at the triumph of the un- 
scrupulous aspirant. The murder of Madero and Pino 
Suarez was the first of the perfectly logical necessities that 
confronted the ambitious generals, resolved to triumph at 
any cost. On the other hand, as this regicide seemed to be 
demanded as a social measure by the degenerates, voiced in 
sinister tones by all Madero's enemies in the press, it fell 
to the lot of the politically depraved leaders to create an 
opinion in favor of a government of regicides, forgetting, 
as history has proved, that regicide is punished with death, 
even though society benefits by the crime. 

The last touch of perfidy was added to the coup of Feb- 
ruary 9, 1 913, by the complicity in the plot of the stu- 
dents of the preparatory military school. Never in Mex- 
ico's worst days, in her darkest hours of iniquity, had it come 
to pass that children and youths had been led along the 
murky ways of treason and taught to soak their supposedly 
innocent hands in blood — the blood which flowed in the most 
detestable regicide in the history of Latin-America. When 
unformed youths lend themselves to the most horrible of all 
social crimes through cupidity, ambition or any other mo- 
tive, the symptoms of a corroding social moral leprosy are 
evident. The day of reckoning cannot be far off. 

The anarchic state of Madero's Government, the im- 
potence of the Mexican intelligence to measure accurately 
the unspeakable condition of the country, the inability of 
the national corpse to feel any patriotic sentiments, the utter 
oblivion to all the duties of civilization, betokened the arrival 
of the hour. The death-knell had sounded, and it was time 
for the "man of iron" to arise, to spill blood — much blood, 
the blood of miscreants, not that of innocent people, not that 
of Madero. Madero was not evil; his only defect was his 
mania, and even that was harmless. 



PART THIRD 

THE POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL INDICT- 
MENT OF PRESIDENT WILSON IN THE 
MEXICAN CASE 



CHAPTER I 

THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES AC- 
CEPTED BY PRESIDENT WILSON 

THE FAILURE OF THE "CIVIS ROMANUS SUM" CLAIM 

A FEW days after General Huerta rose to power on 
the stepping-stones of infamous deed and slain men, 
and overrode the aspirations of the conservative 
classes, of property interests, and of sublime sentiments, 
and the hopes of law and order expressed by natives and 
foreigners in Mexico, Mr. Wilson, with the prestige that 
his office and the greatness of his country conferred on him, 
stepped out as the arbiter of the affairs of the Mexican 
Government and those of other Latin nations in the New 
World. 

The wave of indignation that surged over the American 
people, as well as other civilized and even barbarous nations, 
at the news of the assassination of the President and Vice- 
President of Mexico enveloped Mr. Wilson as he took 
his seat in the presidential chair. The horror manifested 
throughout the world at the stupendous crime of Mexican 
militarism proves that nations are bound together by invisi- 
ble currents of morality and good fellowship as well as by 
the steel cables with which science has bound them together 
in reality, and that this union is drawing mankind closer 
and closer together. Mr. Wilson, interpreting the senti- 
ments of one hundred millions of his compatriots, not as a 
statesman but as a plain American citizen, carried into the 

189 



I90 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

international political arena a current of false sentiment. 
According to the law that governs the mutual friendship 
and interests of sovereign nations enjoying freedom and in- 
dependence, personality is represented by the State, and this 
cannot be a murderer or a thief, or even appear in the role 
of a delinquent. To Mr. Wilson, under the rules pre- 
scribed by international law, Huerta did not exist; Mexico 
alone existed, and only the Mexicans were competent to 
pass judgment upon the official or private conduct of their 
Executive as the basis for political action. As the President 
of the United States, Mr. Wilson had the right to judge 
and condemn Huerta's crime privately, never to act upon it 
in his official capacity, unless Huerta's action bore directly 
or indirectly on the interests of the America people. 

Mr. Wilson's denunciations of Huerta, high-minded but 
indiscreet, revealed also the astounding basis of his new 
policy toward the Latin-American nations. He stepped 
forth as the declared enemy of the "almighty dollar policy" 
which had caused so much hatred and ill-will against the 
United States Government in all Latin-American countries. 
The press of these countries acclaimed him. Here, at last, 
was the just man, not the mercenary man of the cursed 
"almighty dollar policy." He was the twentieth-century 
reincarnation of Benjamin Franklin, perfuming with his 
benevolence and virtue the foreign policy of the United 
States, everywhere considered pestiferous in so far as 
its relations with weak Latin-American nations were con- 
cerned. Mr. Woodrow Wilson must be gifted with rare 
imagination, because he instantly linked Huerta's detestable 
crimes with the Hebraic crimes perpetrated in the campaign 
of the almighty dollar. This dollar-campaign could not pos- 
sibly be carried on without the aid of the corrupt Latin- 
American rulers; and the alliance of the moneyed creole 
and mestizo elements and the moneyed Anglo-Saxon inter- 
ests was indispensable. Mr. Wilson, looking through cast- 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 191 

iron lenses, was gifted with clear vision with regard to the 
Mexican situation. Huerta was simply the bloody and 
ferocious agent of the landowners, who had kept eighty-five 
per cent of the Mexican people in misery, and of the per- 
verted Creoles, in infamous alliance with the magnates of 
Wall Street, sustaining their plutocratic state through the 
sweat of the brow of a wretched people. The Huerta case 
was nothing more than the horrible, unethical case of the 
almighty dollar. 

Mr. Wilson's proclamation of his future policy was ap- 
plauded far and wide. The Frankfort Gazette on April 
6, 1914, said, referring to Mr. Wilson: "This idealist's 
place is in the political world, and we might well consider 
ourselves fortunate if we had at the head of the German 
Government an idealist of such strong will and progressive 
tendencies as Mr. Wilson." 

Without entering into a discussion of the aspirations for 
Germany here expressed by The Frankfort Gazette, I am 
sure that the idealist it wished to have at the head of the 
German Government would be a German idealist, thor- 
oughly acquainted with every department of German life, 
from whom none of its secrets would be withheld. I can- 
not believe that The Frankfort Gazette wished to put a 
French, Spanish, Russian, Brazilian or Japanese idealist at 
the head of the German Government. The Mexicans, even 
admitting the possibility of an idealistic government, cannot 
wish that this idealist should be an estimable President of 
the United States. 

Mr. Hamilton Fyfe in his interesting book has written a 
great truth. "Both President Wilson and Mr. Bryan have 
replied to repeated representations from Americans in Mex- 
ico that their policy does not cover the protection of Ameri- 
can business interests. In August they went so far as to 
advise all Americans in disturbed areas to leave the country. 
That advice was endorsed by the mass of American people. 



192 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

who said: 'They went there of their own accord. They 
took a risk and they must put up with the consequences,' a 
vivid illustration of the weakness of national spirit in the 
United States." ^ 

Such a startling declaration puts an end to all interna- 
tional law, to the binding force of treaties, to the Consti- 
tution of the United States, and even to civilization's en- 
nobling influence. 

Until the advent of Mr. Wilson the claim to protection 
of the American citizen in Mexico, as in all Latin-America, 
and we might even say all over the world, was the "Civis 
romanus sum" of the twentieth century. It was known that 
the United States Government was intractable, as the English 
Government had always been, especially under the ministry 
of Lord Palmerston, when it came to making the slightest 
concession with regard to the rights of its citizens in foreign 
countries. It mattered not if that citizen were a working- 
man or a beggar, the Stars and Stripes protected the sons 
of Washington with equal impartiality. 

Since the promulgation of Mr. Wilson's incomprehensible 
policy a marked indifference has been noted in Latin-Ameri- 
can countries with regard to the fulfillment of obligations 
in this regard, which were known by heart by people and 
Government alike. In Mexico, especially at the present 
time, there is no difference between the status of an American 
citizen and that of a Chinaman, whom the rabble drags 
around by the cue, utterly indifferent as to what the Em- 
peror Yuan-Shi-Kai may think or say. There can be no 
doubt that Mr. Wilson, because of his leaning to the ideal 
of universal democracy, has decided to do away with the 
"Civis romanus sum" attitude of the American citizen, and 
has been applauded by the fifty or more million Latin- 
Americans who for one hundred years have felt humiliated 
by this irritating international privilege. 
1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, pp. 132, 133. 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 193 

PORFIRIO DIAz's DOCTRINE REGARDING MEN OF AFFAIRS 

At first sight Mr. Wilson's doctrine of non-support of 
American claims against Latin-American countries emanat- 
ing from business sources, appears just and an act of repara- 
tion to countries that have been so arrantly offended by 
the "almighty dollar policy." Closely examined, this doc- 
trine is seen to be highly prejudicial to all the nations it aims 
to protect, above all to Mexico. 

Mexico is unquestionably a rich country, but this wealth 
cannot be developed without the assistance of immense for- 
eign capital. It is one thing to graze large herds in the 
fertile plains of Argentine and Uruguay; to sow wheat in 
the rich Pampa soil; to build railroads on smooth plains; to 
carry on commerce with the greatest navigable rivers of the 
world at one's command; but it is quite another thing to 
work mines at a depth of from 800 to 1 ,ooo meters ; to drive 
petroleum wells of more or less the same depth; to build 
railroads in a mountainous country; to carry on commerce 
without rivers; to be obliged, in order to cultivate virgin 
lands, to undertake the installation of very costly irrigation 
plants; and to be furthermore obliged, in order to feed a 
starving population, to invest untold millions to restore to 
exhausted lands the marvellous fertility they formerly pos- 
sessed. Mexico, without the help of an extensive foreign 
capital, has before her only certain extinction by anarchy. 
This would have happened in 1 880, if American capital 
had not flowed into the country and saved the nation from 
the fate that awaited it. 

This point established, it is necessary to consider care- 
fully the following: In the memorable debate which took 
place In December, 1893, for the Constitutional amend- 
ment which should place the judiciary on an independ- 
ent footing, Sefior Justo Sierra and I were the strongest 
speakers in favor of the measure. It passed the House, but 



194 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

General Diaz prevented our salutary reform project from 
being discussed in the Senate, As the dictator had solemnly 
promised that he would leave Congress perfectly free in 
this matter, and would abide by its decision whatever it 
might be, his final action greatly incensed us. Knowing 
this, he called a meeting which Senores Rosendo Pineda, 
Joaquin Casasus, Justo Sierra and I attended. General 
Diaz said: "I owe you an explanation. I am convinced 
that I have been able to govern successfully, to preserve 
peace and to secure some progress for Mexico, because I 
have availed myself of the help of foreign capital. Its rep- 
resentatives have many enemies in the countn,^ and their 
worst enemies are to be found in our courts, because they 
are venal, or because they have a misconceived notion of 
patriotism. Innumerable judges have come to tell me that, 
owing to their intense patriotism, they find it impossible to 
pass sentence in favor of foreigners or of foreign companies, 
when these are contending against Mexican interests. I have 
received complaints from the United States Ambassador of 
the demands made upon foreign companies by judges, clerks, 
lawj'ers, pettifoggers, newspaper men, state governors and 
their favorites; all this mass of depraved traffickers bent on 
getting money out of every concern they know to be rich 
enough to make worth while, a sentence rendered in their 
favor. 

"After trying for eight years by every possible means at 
my command to put an end to this deplorable state of affairs, 
I have come to the conclusion that the only way that lies 
open to me is the one I have adopted. Whenever an im- 
portant lawsuit comes up in the courts in which the interests 
of a foreign company are concerned, I put it into the 
hands of honorable and distinguished lawyers, perhaps the 
most competent and intelligent in Mexico, such as Senores 
Ignacio Luis Vallarta, Luis Mendez, Emilio Velazco, 
Emilio Pardo, Manuel Inda and Rafael Donde. These 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 195 

gentlemen, without forming a special commission, in groups 
of two or three — or more, if necessary — review the judicial 
proceedings of the lower court while the appeal in the higher 
court is still pending. If the judges of the Courts of First 
Instance, which I have left perfectly free, and the Court of 
Appeal, which I have also left free to pass sentence, give 
an unjust verdict according to the opinion of my consulting 
lawyers, I empower my friends in the Supreme Court to 
use my name in order that justice may be done, if they see 
that the Supreme Court is going to give an unjust verdict. 

"I am convinced that if foreign capitalists do not find in 
Mexico assured guarantees that they will be protected 
against the machinations of a certain element, they will flee, 
and with them the peace and well-being of the country." 

We accepted General Diaz's explanation, convinced that, 
in the event that Mexico in the natural evolution of its 
political life should enter into the broader highways of a 
free government, the first thing capitalists would do would 
be to withdraw from the country, if they were not sure of 
being energetically upheld by their home governments, ac- 
cording to the usages of international law and the stipula- 
tions of treaties. 

Neither the foreign working-man, nor the foreign colo- 
nists, the foreign professional man, nor the foreign capital- 
ist has absolute confidence even to-day in Latin-American 
courts. In Latin-American countries which are under the 
law of dictatorships, they trust only dictators of the stamp 
of General Diaz, not on that account, however, ceasing to 
avail themselves of the protection of international law and 
treaty rights. Under the ordinary dictators, or the dema- 
gogues who take their place when anarchy reigns, the courts 
inspire terror instead of confidence, as the instigators of 
nefarious practices rather than of justice. 

Patriotism is differently interpreted. My interpretation 
is that since it is clear that without thd support of foreign 



196 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

capital Mexico would have been ruined even if there had 
been no revolution, patriotism demands that foreign capital 
should have support under international law and treaty 
rights. Mr. Wilson's doctrine of denying support to all 
claims emanating from business interests makes this impos- 
sible. Every Latin-American nation which desires and 
needs to develop its national resources quickly by means of 
foreign capital ought to have a government which encour- 
ages clean business. It ought to be ready to open its doors 
and give all manner of guarantees, compatible with its 
dignity, and with its own rights clearly established, to every 
business man who offers to place his capital at the disposi- 
tion of the country upon a legitimate business footing. If 
Mr. Wilson's doctrine consisted in refusing to support 
American claims in illegitimate business transactions, his 
policy would be laudable as well as scientific. But to pro- 
claim that his administration will not support any claim 
emanating from business interests is equivalent to saying: 
"I forbid all American capitalists to invest money in Mex- 
ico under pain of denying them the protection of interna- 
tional law and treaty rights." 

I believe I have demonstrated that the Wilson doctrine is 
as prejudicial to Mexico as to the United States. 

PRESIDENT WILSON FANS THE BOXER SENTIMENT 

This Wilson doctrine was enthusiastically taken up by 
the revolutionary press and writers, who redoubled the fury 
of their bugle call, summoning all to take up arms in the 
Boxer revolution. The nefarious revolutionary gospel of 
the day was: "So true is it that the Yankee capitalists are 
nothing more than a crafty set of thieves preying upon the 
Mexican people, that even Mr. Wilson, their President, has 
announced that they need not count upon the support of 
their Government for anything. And being the great Wil- 
son, the immortal Wilson, the epic Wilson, all justice and 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 197 

truth, inflamed with liberty and charity, he could not have 
denied a rightful claim to the Yankee capitalists; conse- 
quently, his determination not to support them is equivalent 
to denouncing them before the world as financial pirates 
and corruptors of Latin-American governments, worthy of 
punishment instead of protection. People raise a statue 
to Wilson, and crown it with flowers at least four times a 
year at the change of the seasons!" ^ 

I censure the "almighty dollar policy" as an honest man, 
but not as a Mexican, because in Mexico there has been no 
such policy. Its existence has been invented by demagogic 
agitators and pretentious and small-minded students. 

Foreign capital, as a whole, invested in Mexico, accord- 
ing to the figures of the Mexican official statistics, is as 
follows : 

Railways constructed with foreign capital 600,000,000 pesos 

Foreign capital invested in mines 587,000,000 " 

Metallurgic works and cyanidation plants 70,000,000 " 

Development of petroleum 200,000,000 " 

Necaxa works, electric lighting and electric 

motor power 100,000,000 " 

Invested in banks 76,000,000 " 

Textile industries 35,000,000 " 

Electric companies furnishing lighting and 

motor power throughout the Republic 32,000,000 " 

Loaned to the Caja de Prestamos for the pro- 
motion of agricultural and irrigation works 50,000,000 " 

Federal public debt 485,000,000 " 

State public debt 7,000,000 " 

Invested in foreign commerce 476,000,000 " 

Total 2,691,000,000 pesos 

I am not taking into account the foreign capital invested 

in extensive cattle-raising in Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango 

and Coahuila; in the rubber industry in these same states 

"^ Argumento de Proclama revolucionrio, Durango, Agosto de 
I9Z3. 



198 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

and in those of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi ; in the timber 
lands of Chihuahua; in the sugar-cane plantations in Vera 
Cruz, the territory of Tepic and the Isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec; or, lastly, the cofJee plantations and the rubber tree 
nurseries in the states of Chiapas, Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, 

I ask. Has this or any part of it contributed to the ruin 
of Mexico? Have the 600,000,000 pesos invested in rail- 
roads been employed to rob the Mexican people? It has 
been said that Mexico has given an average of $4,250 gold 
per kilom.eter for railroad construction in a depopulated 
country where only twenty per cent of the people require 
transportation. Mr. Wilson knows that the Mexican Gov- 
ernment, in order to avert the failure of the great railway 
lines, gave in exchange for the control of these the guarantee 
of an annual four per cent dividend on a smaller capital than 
that actually invested. Is this what is called robbing the 
Mexican people, and does it warrant Mr, Wilson in de- 
nouncing the foreign stockholders to the world as a set of 
knaves? 

In the mining world the foreign capital is estimated at 
587,000,000 pesos, which, plus the capital invested in the 
metallurgic works, equals 657,000,000 pesos. Those ac- 
quainted with mining affairs know that in mining, taken as 
a whole, the net profit is not more than fifteen per cent on 
the gross product. Taking this figure as a basis, a net profit 
of 26,000,000 pesos is obtained, which on a capital of 657,- 
000,000 pesos, leaves an annual profit of barely four per 
cent on the capital invested. In 1877, before the investment 
of foreign capital on a large scale in Mexican mines, only 
22,000 workmen were employed in the mining industry; 
114,000 men were employed at a good daily wage in 1910. 
This is the so-called ruin that foreign capital has produced 
in Mexico. The Necaxa concession was not injurious to 
the country, because the only favor conceded was exemption 
from the ruinous taxes that might have been imposed. The 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 199 

Necaxa motor power is utilized by various electric light and 
electric power plants, especially at El Oro, a mining town 
where 15,000 men were employed. 

The foreign capital invested in Government bonds can- 
not have robbed the nation, because the bonds were bought 
almost at par, notwithstanding the fact that the annual in- 
terest is only from four to five per cent. The extensive for- 
eign capital invested in trade operates upon exactly the same 
basis as the national capital, without special privileges or con- 
cessions; therefore, it is ridiculous, if they are on an equal 
footing, to say that in this respect the Mexican people are 
being robbed. It is only when we come to the petroleum 
concessions that a wrong can be said to have been done to 
the Mexican people. In these concessions exemption from 
export duty was granted, and, as by its very nature almost 
all of it is exported, and as its production does not require 
a large force, the people derived very little benefit from the 
exploitation of this portion of their national wealth. But 
this concession was unconstitutional and could have been 
revoked from the moment that the Government that granted 
it was overthrown. All difficulties could have been com- 
promised, and a new contract drawn up by which the petro- 
leum companies would have been obliged to pay an equitable 
tax. 

I do not think it necessary to continue the analysis of these 
specific charges. Those I have particularly noted will suffice 
for Mr. Wilson's consideration and that of the American 
public. It seems sufficient to me to close the review of the 
legitimate business enterprises operating in Mexico at the 
time the revolution broke out by inviting the revolutionary 
writers to show in what way the enterprises I have men- 
tioned have been guilty of defrauding the Mexican people. 
I, moreover, defy the whole world to show me where, out- 
side the cases I have mentioned, they can point out real or 
probable cases of injustice toward the Mexican people. 



200 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

It is undeniable that during the administration of Gen- 
eral Diaz there were shady business transactions of greater 
or lesser gravity; but they were not allied with foreign en- 
terprises, nor were they disadvantageous to the country. The 
dirty business transactions may be narrowed down to seven 
Spaniards who took to Mexico no other capital than their 
determination to build up fortunes by any and all possible 
means. These men were friends of President Manuel Gon- 
zalez and of President Porfirlo Diaz. I know of only three 
Americans who have amassed great fortunes in Mexico. One 
possessed no capital at all; the other two had small amounts 
to Invest. I do not mention their names because It is not my 
intention in writing this book to cause any one trouble out 
of proportion to his responsibilities. I am writing to defend 
my country by stating facts, not to laud my friends, or to 
take revenge on my enemies or molest neutrals. 

It Is not, however, to be taken for granted that because 
seven Spaniards were favorites of the dictator and managed 
to amass fortunes Illegitimately, that the Spanish colony In 
Mexico, numbering about forty thousand, almost all hon- 
orable, useful, hard-working and estimable for many reasons, 
should be hated, persecuted, declared criminal and deserv- 
ing of extermination; any more than the useful, hard-work- 
ing American colony, the promoters of civilization, numbering 
about forty thousand, should be execrated. The Span- 
iards were the creators of fortunes for the Mexican families ; 
without them Mexico would certainly have been a nation of 
bureaucrats, of unfortunate employees of private or foreign 
concerns, of working-men, day-laborers, beggars and pick- 
pockets. , - 

For the successful working out of the "almighty dollar 
policy," the concurrence of the American financier of the 
piratical type and the corrupt Mexican public official Is 
needed. President Wilson apparently does not know that 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 201 

Senor Limantour, who for eighteen years was the absolute 
dictator of Mexico's financial policy, was the avowed enemy 
of American monopolies, and consistently opposed to per- 
mitting American capital, however beneficial its effects, from 
getting the upper hand in the country, because gold is always 
a power, and can sway in the political field. 

The American writer, Mr. Edward I. Bell, who has 
studied Mexican affairs at first-hand, says: "The Pearson 
concession was a move approved by Limantour to prevent 
Standard Oil domination. . . . The Waters-Pierce Oil 
Company, then a subsidiary of the Standard Oil, had held a 
monopoly of the trade of Mexico and at the time of the con- 
cession was engaged in bringing in oil from the United States 
and selling twenty-liter cans of good illuminating grade at 
$3.59 Mexican money, a price equivalent to thirty-five Amer- 
ican cents a gallon. 

"If there was one thing that Limantour objected to more 
than monopoly in general, it was American monop- 
oly. . . ."1 

When the Mexican Government undertook to drain the 
City of Mexico and Vera Cruz, it turned down many Amer- 
ican bids and awarded the contracts to a French company, 
and to the house of Pearson & Son, of London. Many 
other American propositions for all kinds of public improve- 
ments were submitted, and resulted in the award to the 
Pearson company of contracts valued at 170,000,000 pesos. 
The drainage contracts, before the work passed into the 
hands of the Pearson company, had been in charge of an 
English company, Read & Campbell. The installing of a 
water plant to supply the City of Mexico with water, and 
also the erection of all the public buildings that beautify the 
city, costing in the neighborhood of 50,000,000 pesos, were 
carried out under the direction of the Government, only 
Mexican, French and Italian engineers, architects and work- 

1 Edward I. Bell, The Political Shame of Mexico, p. 126. 



202 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

men being employed. Limantour had no grudge against 
Americans, as is clear from the fact that he approved all the 
concessions requested by Ambassador Thompson ; that of the 
Mexican Southern Pacific Railroad, solicited by Mr. Harri- 
man, and the monopoly of office and school supplies granted 
to Mosler, Bowen & Cook. 

Limantour sought to keep the balance between European 
and American capital. He was absolutely incorruptible, and 
his designs in this respect, undoubtedly founded upon pa- 
triotic motives, are to be applauded. 

What has been said will suffice to show that foreign enter- 
prises in Mexico, more than one-half of which represented 
American interests, have operated almost without exception 
honestly, legitimately and thoroughly, and that they have 
not only conferred benefits upon the Mexican people, but 
that they saved them from extinction in 1877. At this time 
the Government and all intelligent leaders, seeing them- 
selves without the support of foreign capital, had lost faith 
in the future of Mexico. 

Mr. Wilson's policy of sustaining the false accusations 
made against foreign capital in Mexico unquestionably served 
to stimulate the Boxer sentiment. This has been the right 
arm of the revolution, as Sefior Carranza has confessed in 
his interview with Senor Aldo Baroni, published in the 
Diario de la Marina of Havana. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE A WAR DOCTRINE 

As the "Mexican case" is closely bound up in the Monroe 
Doctrine, and as this is complex and confused — as are all 
doctrines that are extraordinarily elastic — I feel obliged to 
explain it as I understand it in order to make my argument 
absolutely clear. 

The basis of the Monroe Doctrine is the immutable pro- 
hibition of the acquirement by any foreign power of territory 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 203 

on the American continents or in American waters. To for- 
bid any nation to acquire territory in America is equivalent 
to forbidding that nation to make war upon any of the 
American nations. The rights of war are: Total or partial 
possession of the conquered territory; temporary occupation 
of the conquered territory, which may extend over a long 
period of time; occupation of the territory as a guarantee for 
the payment of indemnity or the fulfillment of obligations 
stipulated in the treaty of peace; occupation of the territory 
in order to collect the war indemnity, or to press the meeting 
of public debt obligations, when the debtor is tardy, or for 
any other reason declines to meet this or other claims. In 
times of peace a power has the right to occupy territory in 
a foreign country in order to protect the lives or interests of 
its subjects, threatened with annihilation. Some interna- 
tional law writers have held that a power has the right to 
punish the crimes committed by rebellious subjects of a for- 
eign nation against its subjects, if the Government of this 
nation is impotent to suppress disorder and punish its own 
rebellious subjects. In order that this punishment may be 
administered, the temporary occupation of a part of the of- 
fending nation's territory is unavoidable. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the Monroe Doc- 
trine restricts the sovereignty of all foreign nations; and 
later it will be seen that it restricts the sovereignty of all 
American nations, except the United States. 

Why have the European nations accepted this manifest 
restriction of their sovereignty? Because all the nations that 
have accepted the Monroe Doctrine, in order to preserve 
their dignity without having to go to war with the United 
States, have tacitly recognized a protectorate exercised by 
the United States Government over all the Latin-American 
nations. But the foreign Powers cannot abjure their rights 
to sovereignty in this respect without the protector assuming 
the responsibility before these Powers for the ofFenses com- 



204 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

mitted by the nations over which the protectorate is exer- 
cised. The Monroe Doctrine obliges the United States to 
answer for the conduct of these nations to the point of giving 
absolute satisfaction to the European Powers which recog- 
nize the Monroe Doctrine, or of incurring the risk of having 
them declare war against the United States when the satis- 
faction is not considered adequate. This proves that the 
Monroe Doctrine is a probable war doctrine even with the 
nations that tacitly or expressly recognize it. The Monroe 
Doctrine was the gauntlet thrown down to Spain and the 
nations composing the Holy Alliance, Prussia, Austria and 
Pvussia, which they could not take up because they were not 
naval powers at the time they were challenged. Moreover, 
the Monroe Doctrine was supported by England, the first 
naval power of the world, which assured the tranquil ex- 
istence of the doctrine so long as England and the United 
States were at peace. It may be said that the Monroe Doc- 
trine has been sustained for more than eighty years by an 
alliance between these two nations. Nevertheless, in the 
Venezuelan case, when the United States took a firm stand 
against England, the alliance was on the point of being 
broken, but the difficulty was surmounted. 

The European Powers have tacitly or expressly recognized 
the protectorate imposed by the United States over Latin- 
American nations because they could not go to war with 
England and the United States to recover their rights as 
military powers, either to undertake conquests or to declare 
war according to international law and the treaties emanat- 
ing from it. It is clear that should the European Powers, 
either through necessity or ambition, make up their minds 
to go to war, they will not feel obliged to respect the pro- 
hibition imposed by the United States, but will override the 
Monroe Doctrine just as soon as they find themselves in a 
position to do so. The Monroe Doctrine, then, may prove 
a war doctrine with the European Powers or Japan at a 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 205 

time it is not yet possible to fix. Germany has publicly de- 
clared that she does not recognize, nor will she ever rec- 
ognize, the Monroe Doctrine; and it is practically certain 
that if the European war had not taken up her attention, 
she would, because of her great interest in Brazil and her 
designs in Nicaragua, have declared war against the United 
States if she could have secured the neutrality of England. 
If Germany crushes the power of England in the present 
war, she will, with a reconstructed navy, attack the United 
States, not only for the purpose of destroying the Monroe 
Doctrine, but for the purpose of breaking a rival power. 
Rome would not have stood the rival power of Carthage in 
the twentieth century any more than she stood it two thou- 
sand and seventy-two years ago. The cause of the Allies is 
the cause of the United States, and explains the unprece- 
dented interest and support given on supposedly neutral 
ground to Germany's enemies. 

Even if the Allies triumph, the Monroe Doctrine will 
still be in peril. England has submitted as gracefully as pos- 
sible to the attitude of the United States because she wished 
to keep Canada. But England, once triumphant, will come 
to recognize that the war with Germany has transformed 
her into what she never dreamed of being — a great military 
power in the world, capable of raising four million men, 
officered and well trained, with an enormous train of artil- 
lery, all this backed by a flourishing home industry capable 
of keeping such a colossal force thoroughly equipped. 

It might be that triumphant France and Italy would at- 
tempt to put an end to the Monroe Doctrine; and in that 
case an alliance for the purpose of getting possession of Nic- 
aragua, or obtaining concessions with regard to the Canal, 
whether or not the Nicaraguian Government were willing, 
could bring the Monroe Doctrine into conflict. I consider 
it very doubtful whether the triumphant European Powers 
will consent to the United States possessing absolute control 



2o6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

of the waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific. These 
considerations prove that, now more than ever, the Monroe 
Doctrine is a war doctrine. 

Wilson's doctrine is diametrically opposed to the Monroe 
Doctrine, in virtue of which the United States assumes be- 
fore Europe and Japan, if the latter recognizes the doctrine, 
responsibility for the actions of the Latin-American nations, 
even when this responsibility is grave and might lead to war. 
The United States, therefore, in assuming this responsibility, 
accepts unconditionally the rights of the European Powers 
to exact from the Latin-American nations the fulfillment of 
the precepts laid down by international law and treaty stip- 
ulations. As in both these laws the rights of all nations to 
support the claims of their respective subjects, whether they 
emanate from business interests or not, are expressly stated, 
it is inconceivable that Europe will submit to the Wilson doc- 
trine of non-protection by the American Government of 
claims emanating from business interests. 

The conflict between these doctrines might lead to three 
things: War between Europe and the United States; the un- 
conditional surrender of the Monroe Doctrine; the incredi- 
bly humiliating action on the part of the American President 
of giving protection to foreign claims from whatever source 
they might spring, even to taking up arms in their defense, 
after denying the same protection to American citizens under 
similar circumstances. I cannot believe that the American 
people would go to war with Mexico, or any other Latin- 
American nation, to protect the interests of European sub- 
jects, when, rather than go to war, they have permitted their 
own countrymen to remain unprotected. 

After the lapse of a year, Mr. Wilson understood that 
his "debutante" political doctrine was untenable, as, in lay- 
ing down his program to The Saturday Evening Post rep- 
resentative, he said: "Second — No personal aggrandizement 
by American investors or adventurers or capitalists, or ex- 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 207 

ploitation of that country, will be permitted. Legitimate 
business interests that seek to develop rather than exploit 
will be encouraged." 

This declaration deserves to be applauded, but the Wilson 
doctrine as first promulgated caused considerable damage to 
both American and Mexican business interests. 



THE PROBLEM 

Should President Wilson have recognized the Huerta 
Government in March, 191 3? 

Let us examine the situation as it appeared in the eyes of 
the world. On one side was General Huerta, usurper, trai- 
tor, assassin and the representative of the ancient and anti- 
patriotic privileged classes, composed of debauched Creoles, 
greedy landowners, holding back land indispensable for the 
maintenance of the people, and dishonest plutocrats, all ene- 
mies of the people, opposed to its moral and material hrt- 
terment. On the other side was Senor Venustiano Car- 
ranza, a Constitutionalist, a great and radical reformer, 
loyal, just and a distributor of lands to the people. 

Guided by appearances, it was not possible to vacillate. 
Every support should be given to Carranza; every means 
used to defeat Huerta. 

Let us see what the actual situation was. 



THE FJRST lie: THE USURPATION OF HUERTA 

I have said that in all countries called free, except Eng- 
land, two political constitutions hold sway, the written and 
the unwritten. The first is the work of politicians; the sec- 
ond is the outgrowth of social usage. In Latin-America the 
political constitutions have been the result of the more or less 



2o8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

unreal visions that incessantly dangle before the imagina- 
tion of patriots and the creators of theoretic democracies. 

Theories cannot be applied to nations; they are eminently 
practical, not theoretical. Life is a fact, not a theory. 

In countries where dictatorships are the rule, the political 
constitution is simply ornamental, and, consequently, the 
president emanating from such a constitution is simply a 
constitutional president of the ornamental type (a real presi- 
dent such as Madero, but unfit to govern), or a dictator of 
the proportions of General Porfirio Diaz. As has been said, 
the unwritten constitution of a people emanates from its 
racial traits, its history, its economic organism, its territory, 
its education, its real needs, sufferings and aspirations, and 
the influence of foreign nations — in short, from social usage. 
In Mexico the law prescribed by social usage was the change 
of government by violence and treason, without recourse to 
assassination. Therefore Madero was the real usurper who 
had violated the inexorable law — which was a law notwith- 
standing its atrociousness — by appearing as the constitutional 
president in a country where no one was interested in living 
up to the written constitution, and where he gave new and 
flagrant examples of its violation. The simple fact that a 
president has been legally elected is not enough to make him 
respected. He must combine legality of conduct, and this 
President Madero did not do. It is not true that the coup 
of February 9, 191 3, destroyed a democracy. A demo- 
cratic government is a government founded on public opin- 
ion, and when such a government loses its support, it has 
virtually been overthrown. The Nueva Era, the semi-offi- 
cial organ of the Madero administration, said editorially in 
December, 1912: "It really requires great moral courage to 
confess one's self a Maderista." 

It may be well to repeat here the sentence previously 
quoted from the writings of Senor Fernandez Gxiell, who up 
to the present day has remained one of Madero's firm ad- 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 209 

herents: "At the time of the uprising at Vera Cruz (Oc- 
tober 10, 1 91 2) the Federal Government rested solely on 
the loyalty of the army." ^ 

This clearly indicates that from October 10, 19 12, Ma- 
dero was a despot, intrenched behind a row of bayonets. 

Why was this despotism tolerated? Because the democ- 
racy did not exist. If it had existed, the loyal faction in 
the House of Representatives would have risen to perform 
its manifest duty. But as we already know, the majority in 
the House was unconditionally at the disposal of Gustavo 
Madero, the President's brother. How was it possible, un- 
less he assumed the role of Cain, that President Madero 
could be indicted and found guilty? Clearly it was purely 
a family affair, and the only way to overthrow the despot 
was to overthrow the whole family. In Latin-American 
countries, and in all countries ruled by dictators, it is the 
duty of the army to overthrow the despot. 

As has already been mentioned, in countries ruled by dic- 
tatorships, from the days of ancient Rome down to the lat- 
est upheaval in Haiti, which overthrew the President, the 
army acts as a salutary power. It exterminates anarchy, 
when this begins to degenerate from political into social 
anarchy; and overthrows dictators, when their beneficent or 
tolerable rule degenerates into a harmful and morally ener- 
vating despotism. It must not be overlooked that all tyranny 
is progressive. The Caesar begins by signing with horror 
the first death sentence against a bandit, and ends by wish- 
ing that the human race had only one head so that he might 
decapitate it at a blow. The right to rebel is the inherent 
right of all democratic and servile peoples. If rebellion be 
the means of saving the country from death, servile peoples 
have as much right to have recourse to it as do those ruled 
by democracies. Real democracy is a modern institution, 

1 R. Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolucion Mexicana, 
p. 185. 



210 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

and humanity would not now exist if the peoples had not 
thrown off the tyrannical yoke by means of militarism, orien- 
tal seraglio conspiracies or regicide. The latter method is 
repugnant to all right-minded persons, and is certainly the 
most unethical of all, as militarism is the least offensive. 

Undoubtedly militarism is unethical and open to the con- 
demnation of all ultra-idealists ; but considering society in the 
light of an organism, we may draw an analogy from pa- 
thology, which gives us so many examples of diseases that act 
one upon the other to produce beneficial effects upon the pa- 
tient. A consuming fever is sometimes nature's device for 
throwing off an infection, just as the cough that accom- 
panies certain diseases is always a salutary symptom, if not 
the actual means of effecting an absolute cure. In Latin- 
American nations, which are passing through the critical 
stage of their dictatorial life, militarism is the salutary func- 
tion that restores them to partial or complete health. 

From what has been said it will be seen that Madero, in 
February, 19 13, was an usurper, loudly condemned by pub- 
lic opinion. As there was no democratic system through 
which the President could be called to account, the people 
in their servile capacity were quite within their rights in 
appealing to a revolution. As they were servile, as is proved 
by their incapacity to grasp democracy, they had the right 
to use the means within their power to induce the defection 
of the army and compel it to fulfil its obligations — not con- 
stitutional, but sociological — of overthrowing the President 
of the Republic. And, finally, it is to be deduced from the 
preceding that Huerta was the real President of Mexico, 
the sociological President, imposed by the law of social 
usage, the real constitutional President emanating from the 
unwritten Constitution, representative of the needs of the 
people. From this it is also to be deduced that President 
Wilson as a moralist may rank with Telemachus, impreg- 
nated with the doctrine of Fenelon; but as a sociologist, and 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 211 

as President of the United States, he has belittled himself 
by his policy of non-recognition of Latin-American Govern- 
ments founded upon treason and violence, driving the United 
States to the absurd political measure of having to sever diplo- 
matic relations with most of the Latin-American and all ot 
the oriental nations. Very recently, February 28, 1916, 
the news was flashed across the water that the heir-apparent 
of Turkey, young Yussouf Izzadin, in my opinion quite as 
estimable as Madero, had been assassinated by order of the 
chief of the Turkish Government, and no one is so far aware 
that Mr. Wilson has severed diplomatic relations with Tur- 
key. Similarly, when the President of Peru was removed by 
violence from the presidential chair, Mr. Wilson, at that 
time already President of the United States, experienced no 
difficulty in recognizing the usurper. Notwithstanding the 
fact that the entire world is aware of the handiwork of the 
Chinese political juggler, Yuan-Shi-Kai, accused of not one 
but several secret murders, Mr. Wilson holds out his hand 
to him, after having effusively pressed Pancho Villa's — 
still red with the blood of Benton — through his representa- 
tive, General Hugh L. Scott, Chief of Staff. The sig- 
nificance of this spectacle was further enhanced by the aston- 
ishment of the world upon seeing a full-fledged general of 
the United States Army treating with Villa, as power to 
power, placing the notorious Mexican brigand on the same 
footing as General Joffre or Marshals Hindenburg or Mac- 
kensen. This cannot have been a matter of pride to the 
American people, its Navy or its Army. Mr. Wilson owes 
it to Carranza that he did not recognize Villa. 

THE SECOND LIE: THE WICKEDNESS OF THE 
CREOLE CLASS 

Through constant hammering President Wilson has been 
brought to believe that a conspiracy exists among the Cre- 
oles to get the mastery of the people, and once more to 



212 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

establish the Colonial system; and that to accomplish this 
end they have turned the army against the mestizo repre- 
sentatives of liberty, science and justice and of everything 
that was great in Mexico. 

Let us examine the truth of this assertion. 

The colonel of the Nineteenth Battalion, who turned trai- 
tor to Madero and took possession of the plaza of Vera 
Cruz on October lo, 191 2, to hand it over to General 
Felix Diaz, was Diaz Ordaz, a mestizo, as was also Felix 
Diaz. The three generals, Re57es, Diaz and Mondragon, 
who carried out the coup against Madero, were all mestizos. 
The instigators of Madero's murder were Generals Diaz and 
Mondragon, already mentioned, General Huerta, an In- 
dian, General Blanquet, a mestizo, according to some, a 
zambo (mixture of Indian and negro), according to others, 
and Celso Acosta, General Felix Diaz's "guiding star," a 
mestizo. The actual assassins were Cardenas and Pimienta, 
both mestizos. The secretaries responsible for having coun- 
selled or approved the murder, or for not having resigned 
as soon as it occurred, were Rodolfo Reyes, Secretary of Jus- 
tice, a mestizo; General Mondragon, Secretary of War, al- 
ready mentioned; Alberto Garcia Granados, Secretary of 
the Interior, a mestizo, according to some, a quadroon or 
octaroon, according to others ; David de la Fuente, Secretary 
of Public Works, a mestizo; Manuel Garza Aldape, Secre- 
tary of Agriculture, a mestizo; Jorge Vera Estanol, Secre- 
tary of Public Instruction, a mestizo. Out of nine Cabinet 
Ministers, only three were Creoles: Senor Toribio Esquivel 
Obregon, Secretary of the Treasury; Senor Francisco Leon 
de la Barra, Secretary of Foreign Relations, and Senor Al- 
berto Robles Gil, Secretary of Fomento. 

General Huerta's intimate friend, who led the troops that 
captured Madero in the National Palace on October 18, 
1913, and who killed Senor Marcos Hernandez, Madero's 
cousin, was Enrique Cepeda, a full-blooded Indian, accord- 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 213 

ing to some, a zambo, according to others. Cepeda was also 
guilty of the murder of Hernandez, a colonel of Rurales, in 
the Belen prison. Those pointed out as instigators of the 
gruesome policy of "disappearance" were Colonel Quiroz, a 
mestizo ; General Blanquet, already mentioned ; Dr. Urrutia, 
Secretary of the Interior, a mestizo; Senor Manuel Garza 
Aldape, already mentioned; and the Under-Secretary of the 
Interior, also a mestizo. General Camarena, accused of the 
murder of Senor Abraham Gonzalez, Governor of Chihua- 
hua, was a mestizo. I do not know the origin of the ob- 
jectionable Cecilio Ocon. In view of the preceding, can the 
Creoles be held responsible for the different murders that 
occurred at the time of Huerta, and for the overthrow of 
Madero and the destruction of "Democracy"? 

It is clearly demonstrated, then, that the overthrow of 
Madero, his murder and the policy of political assassinations 
that followed, was not the work of Creoles but of Indians, 
zambos and mestizos. 

THE THIRD LIE: THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CIENTIFICOS 

I think it advisable at this point to recall the fact that in 
1912 the Cientificos no longer existed as a group, faction or 
party. I have said that the Cientificos represented a group 
of intellectuals, never exceeding fifteen in number, organized 
with the idea of reforming the dictatorship, making it as 
liberal and just as possible, and unquestionably expecting to 
be named the successors of the dictatorial power. In the 
beginning the Cientificos held meetings in which political 
and economic questions were discussed and resolutions voted 
upon and carried by a majority. After 1899 these meet- 
ings were discontinued, and the politically active Cientificos 
were reduced to a group of officials represented by Senores 
Jose Limantour, Roberto Nunez, Pablo Macedo, Joaquin 
Casasus and Rosendo Pineda. As has already been said, these 
five men, gifted with great talent and learning, were guilty 



214 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

of political blunders that not even five Australian bushmen 
would have committed had they been directing the policy of 
the British Empire. In the face of a policy so disparaging 
to the prestige of the Cientificos, the dictatorship and the 
Mexican people, the other Cientificos vi^ithdrew from the 
group, not announcing their vi^ithdrawal publicly in order to 
avoid bringing upon themselves the undesirable soubriquet 
of political mountebanks, more especially as conditions could 
not be bettered. Outside the restricted group mentioned, 
General Reyes was the only other aspirant to the power. 
He was almost assured of triumph as he had a following 
among the older element in the army, the support of the 
younger and that of all agitators, who with equal facility 
manufacture heroes and destroy reputations. 

Sefior Moheno, in his interesting book, Adonde vamos a 
darf (Where Are We Going to End?), published in 1906, 
said, referring to the exclusiveness of this small political 
group, that they followed the "this car full" policy; and I, 
modifying the phrase, said that a car was far too spacious 
a vehicle for Senor Limantour's policy — that it should be 
named the policy of the ^Handau complet." Among the 
Cientificos who did not belong to this "landau complet" 
group, and who were excluded as any ordinary individual 
might have been, were to be found several professional men, 
possessors of extremely modest incomes; the remainder — 
representing the majority — were poor men who lived upon 
their meagre salaries, which were quite out of proportion to 
the services they rendered the dictatorship by their brains and 
education. 

The Cientificos, who were outside the political group, 
knew that if the latter triumphed they would remain in the 
obscure posts to which they had been relegated, and that if 
General Reyes triumphed, they would get what had been so 
loudly promised them by the Reyista press — persecution, con- 
fiscation of their property, death itself. 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 215 

When Madero triumphed in 191 1, he was well disposed 
toward all, and the non-political Cientificos, relieved of their 
burden, breathed freely. They rejoiced at his triumph, 
toasted the Madero cause in private, and felt relieved to see 
their country delivered from the hands of Reyes and the 
Cientificos who had expected to fall heir to the dictatorship. 

In 19 1 2, of the five Cientificos who composed the politi- 
cal group — in which Senor Ramon Corral, as Vice-President 
of the Republic, had been included — only three remained, 
Senor Ramon Corral and Senor Roberto Nunez having died 
in Paris. Of these, Senores Pineda, Macedo and Casasus 
remained in the City of Mexico. Senor Pineda was poor 
and devoted all his time to his profession. Senores Macedo 
and Casasus, both enormously rich, had retired permanently 
to private life. They were surfeited and disillusioned. The 
inevitable disaster that threatened the country was plainly 
visible to them and weighed them down. It must not, how- 
ever, be inferred from this that, so far as business relations 
were concerned, they were not on excellent terms with the 
Madero family, especially with Senor Ernesto Madero, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, who transacted business not of a 
political nature through their firms. 

It may be said that the combination formed by Senores 
Moheno, Olaguibel, Lozano and Garcia Narnajo was a 
Cientifico combination. It could not have been. In the first 
place, when Madero triumphed, the Cientificos had dis- 
banded ; and in the second, Senor Moheno never was a 
Cientifico. Senores Olaguibel and Garcia Narnajo were ad- 
herents of Senor Corral's, having been won over by Senor 
Pineda in 1909. Senor Limantour had determined not to 
support Corral, even if he won, because he had decided to 
retire to private life as soon as General Diaz would permit 
him to do so. I appeal to the members of the Madero fam- 
ily to vouch for the exactness of this statement. The Cien- 
tificos cannot be held responsible for the actions of some of 



2i6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

their number after they had disbanded, and Sefiores Ola- 
guibel, Lozano and Garcia Narnajo did not even constitute 
a majority of the ex-Cientifico group, but a reduced minor- 
ity, which can never be a representative force without the 
consent and authority of the majority. 

I have gone into this rather extensively, because in sev- 
eral books, among them that of Mr. Edward I. Bell, it has 
been stated that the revolt at Vera Cruz, headed by Felix 
Diaz, was financed by the Cientificos. The great majority 
of the Cientificos were poor and had no money to devote to 
this purpose, and it is absurd to suppose that the wealthy 
Cientificos, who were enjoying the favor of Madero, their 
lives and property amply protected, would have furnished 
money to put those in power who for eight years had re- 
viled, calumniated, disparaged, persecuted and held them up 
to the hatred and contempt of the people. 

The Cientificos disappeared with General Diaz; but for 
political ends they have not been permitted to die. Later on, 
in its proper place, I shall say more regarding this. 

THE FOURTH LIE: MADERO's OVERTHROW BY THE 
REACTIONISTS 

The first book published against Madero which caused 
a sensation was Madero sin mascara (Madero Unmasked). 
Its author, Senor Aguilar, was antagonistic to the dictator- 
ship and to the Cientificos. He was a partisan of Madero, 
at his side from the beginning of liis revolt to the defeat at 
Casas Grandes on March 6, 191 1. The second book dis- 
paraging to Madero was written by Senor Toribio Esquivel 
Obregon. He was an avowed enemy of the dictatorship 
and of the Cientificos, a frankly open anti-reelectionist, so 
powerful in his party that he was chosen speaker in the 
Anti-reelection Convention of 19 10, against the candidacy 
of Senor Francisco Vazquez Gomez for vice-president. 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 217 

The third publication against Madero was a pamphlet writ- 
ten by Senor Jorge Vera Estanol. Vera Estanol had been 
appointed Secretary of Public Instruction by General Diaz 
at the time when, working in accord with Senor Limantour, 
his chief of staff, who was responsible for their conduct, he 
decided to throw the Cientificos overboard. The fourth 
book, ruinous to the popularity of Madero, was written by 
Senor Roque Estrada. He was Madero's ex-private secre- 
tary, his companion in prison at San Luis Potosi, who fled 
with him and remained his constant companion and helper 
in all his revolutionary schemes hatched in the United 
States, until the moment that Madero put foot on Mexican 
soil February 14, 191 1. Senor Estrada is at present Senor 
Venustiano Carranza's Secretary of Justice. 

What did Madero most harm were the articles written 
by Dr. Francisco Vazquez Gomez, published in the City 
of Mexico press. Vazquez Gomez, who had been a candi- 
date for the vice-presidency in igio, named by the Anti- 
reelection Convention, was Madero's private agent in Wash- 
ington from February, 191 1, to the triumph of the revolu- 
tion, and was forced upon President de la Barra by Madero 
as Secretary of Public Instruction. His brother, Emilio 
Vazquez Gomez, was the author of Zapata's Plan de Ayala. 
Dr. Vazquez Gomez made revelations which pulled Madero 
off his pedestal in the eyes of the people. Some of these 
revelations cast serious doubts upon the probity of the 
Madero family, and even upon that of "the Apostle" him- 
self. These papers, more than anything else, irreparably 
damaged his popularity. 

In the House of Representatives those responsible for the 
overthrow of Madero were Senor Querido Moheno, who 
never was a Cientifico; Senores Lozano, Olaguibel and 
Garcia Narnajo, who were, properly speaking, followers of 
Pineda, a partisan of Corral's; Senores Trejo and Lerdo de 
Tejada, opponents of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos 



21 8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

during General Diaz's time; Senores Aquiles Elorduy and 
Armando Ostos, who were always enemies of the dictator- 
ship and of the Cientificos ; Senor Juan Sarabia, a rabid 
agitator and an avowed enemy of the dictatorship and of 
the Cientificos, who had been persecuted, incarcerated in 
the San Juan de Ulua fortress, without charges being pre- 
ferred against him, and came very near being executed; and 
Senor Pedro Galicia Rodriguez, one of the most popular 
political leaders with the lower classes in the City of Mex- 
ico, having tremendous influence in the labor unions, an old 
enemy of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos, and a man 
of avowed socialistic principles, uncompromisingly and incor- 
ruptibly carried out. 

In the Senate the war for Madero's political extermina- 
tion was carried on by Senor Manuel Calero, a friend of 
General Diaz's and an enemy of the Cientificos; Senor Fran- 
cisco Leon de la Barra, ex-partisan of the dictatorship and 
ex-President of the Republic, appointed by the revolutionists 
with the approval of Senor Limantour, a former friend of 
Madero and a neutral in regard to the Cientificos; Senor 
Gumesindo Enriquez, ex-partisan of Presidents Gonzalez 
and Diaz, and vigorous enemy of the Cientificos; Senor J. 
Flores Magon, ex-Secretary of the Interior, former enemy 
of the dictatorship and of the Cientificos, and an ardent 
partisan of the revolution; and, lastly, Senor Guillermo 
Obregon, a strong adherent of Dehesa, and consequently 
one of the most intense enemies of the Cientificos. 

In the states the propaganda against Madero was carried 
on in the same way. In the state of Morelos Senor Otilio 
Montano, a normal school teacher, a Zapatista general and 
one of Emiliano Zapata's counsellors, was as bitter an op- 
ponent of Madero as he had been of the dictatorship and 
of the Cientificos. Senor Palafox, one of President Eulalio 
Gutierrez's secretaries, imposed by Zapata, was also one of 
the leaders of the anti- Madero campaign in Morelos. In 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 219 

the state of Chihuahua, Senor Silvestre Terrazas, who 
had been relentlessly opposed to the dictatorship and the 
Cientificos, and was a supporter of the Vazquez faction, was 
Madero's implacable assailant. Senor Braulio Hernandez 
also operated in this state. He adopted the motto "Lands 
and Justice," hoping to incite the populace in Chihuahua 
to revolt against Madero. He was Governor Abraham 
Gonzalez's ex-secretary and had been appointed by Madero. 
He had upheld Governor Gonzalez throughout all the 
period of the revolution in Chihuahua. In Yucatan the edi- 
tors of La Revista de Merida, Senores Carlos T. Menendez 
and Delio Morena Canton, carried on the anti-Madero cam- 
paign. They had always been avowed enemies of the Cien- 
tificos, and were, moreover, anti-reelectionists. Senor 
Moreno Canton was the anti-reelectionist candidate for 
governor of the state of Yucatan. 

In the City of Mexico the newspaper campaign was scan- 
dalous. El Pais, El Mananaj La Tribuna, El Heraldoj El 
Diarioj and El Multicolor led the way. El Pais was un- 
doubtedly the worst, as it had Trinidad Sanchez Santos, the 
leading newspaper agitator of this hemisphere, and without 
doubt of the entire world, for its editor-in-chief. Sanchez 
Santos annihilated a political party, a faction, an individual 
with a word, usually of ridicule or infamy. Senor Rogelio 
Fernandez Giiell, at that time a Maderista, now a Car- 
ranzista, truthfully said: "It was Sanchez Santos who 
carried the already lifeless body of Gustavo Madero to the 
scaffold" ; and I add : It was Sanchez Santos who riddled 
the lifeless body of Francisco Madero with bullets. Sanchez 
Santos was always antagonistic to the Cientificos, and dur- 
ing the last years of General Diaz's dictatorship was its 
sworn enemy. Except for El Pais the revolution of Novem- 
ber, 1 9 10, in Chihuahua would have been ended in ten or 
twelve days by the surrender of the rebels. The insurgents 
in the state of Chihuahua did not believe that without other 



220 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

support they could stand out against the dictatorship, which 
in the eyes of the nation possessed formidable means of put- 
ting down the revolution, and was capable of dominating 
an uprising all over the country. Madero prepared his revo- 
lution as a schoolboy might prepare a baseball contest with 
a rival team. He ordered that at six p. m. on November 
20, 19 10, the inhabitants in every part of the Republic 
should rise up in arms against the dictatorship. That they 
were not armed or trained or properly officered, or in any 
way protected from being immediately exterminated as 
rebels and traitors, if General Diaz had not been in his 
dotage, did not seem to enter into his calculations. 

Madero had prepared for almost all his followers the 
tragedy that overtook the forces of Aquiles Serdan at 
Puebla. The Chihuahua insurgents had been led to believe 
that the uprising would be simultaneous all over the coun- 
try. Great was their surprise, therefore, to find ten days 
after they took up arms that, with the exception of Serdan, 
who had met his death, they alone were in revolt against a 
Government possessed apparently of inexhaustible resources 
with which to crush them. Senor Abraham Gonzalez him- 
self told me that the demoralization had been complete, and 
would have led to immediate surrender if a copy of El Pais 
had not been received just at that time, announcing impor- 
tant uprisings all over the country, and saying that still 
other revolutionists were preparing to take the field in less 
than a month. All this, of course, was pure fabrication as 
later events proved. But the fact remains that Sanchez 
Santos saved the revolution in Chihuahua, because the 
leaders, waiting for the promised uprisings, saw the impo- 
tence of the Caesar to oppose them, and time proved to them 
that they could gain ground, not by force of arms, but 
simply by letting the Government continue its stupid and 
listless policy. 

There is no doubt, preposterous as it may seem, that 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 221 

Sanchez Santos saved the revolution and aftervi^ards upheld 
it, even dissipating the panic of the plutocratic partisans of 
the Government who advised him to make overtures of 
peace at the time when only Chihuahua was in revolt. With 
the same force that Sanchez Santos saved, upheld and helped 
to spread the revolution, he ignobly attacked Madero and 
all his administration, to the point of making it odious and 
contemptuous. This is a fact to which the whole Mexican 
nation can bear witness. Sanchez Santos was always — as 
only he knew how to be — the cruel, implacable and irresist- 
ible enemy of the Cientificos. 

El Heraldo's weapon was cynicism. It held the Govern- 
ment up to the gaze of the public as something that deserved 
just as much consideration as a mouse that one chases out 
of its hole with a broom. This newspaper was directed by 
Senor Ricardo Contreras, a native of Guatemala and an irre- 
concilable enemy of Senor Manuel Estrada Cabrera, Presi- 
dent of Guatemala. La Tribuna was disputatious and sedi- 
tious to a degree, and exaggerated Madero's errors to the 
point of converting them into crimes. Its diatribes influenced 
the masses, who recoiled with horror, flinging maledictions at 
the "lunatic of Parras," who had dragged his country into a 
veritable hell. El Manana was edited by J. Rabago, the 
most venomous of the journalists who was universally feared 
for the keenness of his satire. Senor Olaguibel, a representa- 
tive in the House, was leagued with him in the campaign. 
Rabago had been an uncompromising Porfirista. El Diario 
del Hogar published incendiary articles written by the fero- 
cious socialists, Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama and Camilo 
Arriaga, both confirmed enemies of the dictatorship and of 
the Cientificos. Senor Barrios, another socialist who had 
fought in the Madero revolution, spoke so vehemently 
against the President and threatened to resort to such sedi- 
tious measures that it was necessary to arrest and imprison 
him. Lastly, a Spaniard named Mario Victoria, who di- 



222 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

rected and edited El Multicolor, a paper devoted to vile 
caricatures, utterly destructive of the respect a civilized peo- 
ple ought to have for its Chief Executive, even though he 
may be worthy of censure and punishment. 

Summing up, then, almost all those responsible for the 
demolition of the Madero Government were revolutionists 
of anti-Porfirian origin. Among those who were not de- 
clared enemies of the Cientificos were to be found only 
Senores Lozano, Olaguibel and Garcia Naranjo. Is it cred- 
ible, I ask, that this campaign to destroy Madero's moral 
and civic prestige — a campaign which had resorted to cal- 
umny and outrage to reduce him to nothingness, which 
Senor Fernandez Giiell said had left him with only the sup- 
port of the army — could have been directed by the Cien- 
tificos, the Porfiristas, the clericals, and all that wicked crowd 
of landowners, which seems to inhabit and to have taken up 
permanent abode in President Wilson's mind? The Mex- 
ican revolution was prepared by General Reyes, inspired by 
an insatiable greed for revenge ; it was launched by Madero, 
without realization of its consequences, and like all revolu- 
tions it fulfilled its high mission by engulfing him. 

THE FIFTH LIE: THE CONSPIRACY OF THE LANDOWNERS 

President Wilson said in the columns of The Saturday 
Evening Post: "They want order — the old order; but I 
say to you that the old order is dead. It is my part, as I 
see it, to aid in composing those differences so far as I may 
be able, that the new order, which will have its foundation 
in human liberty and human rights, shall prevail." 

I am obliged by the exigencies of the situation to repeat 
what I have already said to the honorable President of the 
United States. I admit that the Mexican landowners ask 
for the restoration of their former rights and properties. 
May I ask why Mr. Wilson does not measure them with the 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 223 

same yard-stick or weigh them in the same scales that he 
m.easures and weighs the Cuban landowners? Why is it 
that what is good for Cuba is prejudicial for Mexico? 
Why are there two standards of justice, one applied to Cuba, 
the other to Mexico? Why does not President Wilson de- 
clare that "the old order is dead" forever in Cuba? Why, 
to conclude, has a nation of fifteen million inhabitants been 
handed over, in supposed defense of this agrarian right, to a 
horde of savage bandits who have reduced it to an incon- 
ceivable state of misery and desolation, when in Cuba the 
most insignificant agitation on this score is severely pun- 
ished? In the southern part of the United States tremen- 
dous tracts of land are owned by powerful trusts. Wherein 
lies the difference, when it comes to monopolies, between the 
American magnate and the Mexican Creole? In conclusion, 
I should like to call to President Wilson's attention the fact 
that the President of the United States has not been recog- 
nized by even a fraction of the Mexican people as endowed 
with the right to assume the role of protector of the Mex- 
ican nation. 

In Part First I have established by means of irrefutable 
proofs that the Mexican landowners at the present time 
cannot prove a great obstacle to the progress of the Mex- 
ican people. In order to convince all Mexicans, as well as 
foreigners, who have interested themselves in the welfare of 
the Mexican people, whom they believe to have been ham- 
pered by the unjust usurpation of their land, I am going 
to settle, once and for all, this question of the recovery for 
the people of lands unjustly taken from them, by citing 
incontestable facts. 

Since 1867 the liberal faction has held complete suprem- 
acy over the conservative faction, which relied in its struggle 
on its traditional supporters^ .the clergy, the army and the 
landowners. But fjsin'the day that the supremacy of the 
liberals w^g verified to the present time (March i, 1916), 



224 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

no one outside their own group has been a supporter of 
the landowner's cause in Mexico. I invite the revolu- 
tionists to present to Mr. Wilson and the American people 
any document whatsoever which defends the principle of 
landownership. In these forty-nine years no newspaper- 
man, parliamentary orator, university professor, priest, pulpit 
orator, soap-box orator, mercenary politician or writer in 
Mexico, has ever written or spoken a single word in favor 
of the principle of landownership. 

This principle was not supported by the dictatorship. I 
have a rooted objection to stating facts that cannot be 
substantiated, and I shall, therefore, fully verify this state- 
ment. In 1886, when the great depreciation in the value of 
silver caused universal alarm among the people, who be- 
lieved that the decline of silver meant the ruin of the coun- 
try, the House of Representatives appointed a commission to 
make a detailed study of the situation. I was appointed 
chairman of the committee, and the law of 1886 was the 
outcome of its deliberations. In the preamble the commis- 
sioners stated that the remedy proposed was far from being 
considered radical; that it was simply offered as a palliative. 
The real remedy lay in abandoning mining and taking up 
agriculture; and in order to assure the success of this experi- 
ment it was necessary to establish small landholdings. To 
accomplish this it was advised to proceed at once with the 
distribution of the land. The Secretary of Fomento, Gen- 
eral Carlos Pacheco, ordered that a further study of the 
question be made by the persons most competent to render 
a decision in the matter. Their unanimous verdict was that 
the salvation of the nation lay in agriculture through the 
medium of small landholdings, and that the Mexicans would 
have to resign themselves to give up mining, since the good 
of the country demanded it. 

^Vhy were these recommendations not carried into effect? 
Because there was no money with which to indemnify the 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 225 

rightful owners of the lands, and it had never been proposed 
to take the land forcibly from them. Mexico was really in 
a state of bankruptcy until 1894. But from that time until 
1899 it was in a position to take up the agrarian question. 
I have previously stated, with absolute candor, that Senor 
Limantour made the fatal mistake of not taking up the ques- 
tion of irrigation until 1908; and I have also stated that 
from that date the dictatorship had under consideration sev- 
eral irrigation projects, knowing that without irrigation 
nothing but failure would result from the distribution of the 
land, as I have demonstrated in Part First. 

But suppose the landowners had resolved to oppose this 
partition. How could they have done so? By means of 
buying up politicians and newspapers? Ninety per cent of 
the landowners had their properties mortgaged at about fifty 
per cent more than they were worth, besides twenty-five per 
cent in bank loans. The proof that they made no attempt 
to defend themselves by buying up newspapers and writers is 
to be found in the fact that in forty-nine years not even the 
most stupid or mercenary writer has ever come forward in 
defense of their cause. 

The landowners cannot count upon the support of the 
clergy, because they are as much opposed to the policy as 
the most sincere revolutionist himself. They cannot count 
upon the army, because the chief officers and enlisted men are 
all enemies of the system. They cannot count upon the rev- 
olutionary leaders, because not one of them is a landowner. 
They cannot count upon the educated element, because it has 
always fought the system. They cannot even count upon 
themselves, because more than half of the so-called wealthy 
landowners have desired to get rid of the lands that have 
impoverished instead of enriching them. The cause of a 
handful of men, without revolutionary inclinations, timid 
and spiritless, who can count upon no support whatever in a 
nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants, where every one, in fact, is 



226 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

their enemy, can hardly be said to be a cause at all. It is, 
consequently, very far from the truth to say that it is this 
hatred for the landowner alone that has caused a six years' 
civil war, which has destroyed and will continue to destroy 
the country. 

THE SIXTH lie: THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CLERGY 

According to the Mexican Constitution complete separa- 
tion of Church and State exists in Mexico. The Constitu- 
tion does not recognize the Church as a moral entity. The 
Government is atheistic; it ignores the existence of religion, 
and looks upon the clergymen of all denominations as Mex- 
ican citizens if they fulfil the conditions required of every 
citizen by the Constitution. Clergymen of all denominations 
are forbidden to run for office, but are not debarred from 
holding Government administrative positions by appoint- 
ment. Outside this prohibition the clergymen of all denom- 
inations enjoy all the civil and political rights granted to all 
citizens by the laws of the land. 

Political rights are active and passive, and as the clergy- 
men of all denominations may lay claim to both, it follows 
that every Catholic priest, whether regular or secular, canon 
or bishop, may take part in politics in general, and in the 
elections as an individual, there being no difFerence between 
him and any other citizen. The only disqualification is the 
one I have already mentioned of not being permitted to rUn 
for office. 

In view of this it is illegal, absurd and irrational, not 
to say perverse, to blame the Catholic clergy when in their 
capacity of private individuals they exercise the rights 
granted them by the Constitution. I shall not enter here 
into a discussion as to whether or not these rights exert a 
good or a bad influence, as it is outside the scope of this 
book. But as they are granted by law, so long as they are 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 227 

not rescinded, they exist and are to be respected. The best 
proof of the insincerity of the accusers of the Catholic clergy, 
who intentionally confuse personal with corporation rights, 
is the fact that many Mexican Protestant ministers have ex- 
ercised political rights and have violated the Constitution by 
running for office, and even succeeded in having themselves 
elected representatives, senators and governors. Seiior Nico- 
las Islas y Bustamente, a lawyer, was a Protestant bishop, 
and advanced his candidacy for the Senate without having 
renounced his ministerial office. It was only when he was 
elected that he renounced the episcopacy to take his seat in 
the Senate. There have been Mexican Protestant ministers 
who have renounced their ministerial calling to run for the 
House of Representatives, and after the expiration of their 
first term, having collected their salary, have gone back to 
the ministry when they failed to be reelected to the House. 
As no proof has ever been established that the Mexican 
Catholic clergy has, as a body or corporation, ever mixed in 
politics, all charges brought against it, whether true or false, 
are absolutely null. The revolutionists in their efforts to 
prove that the Catholic clergy has conspired against the 
Constitution, commit the incredible blunder of citing as a 
proof the exercise of the right to mix in political affairs as 
private individuals that every clergyman has the privilege 
of availing himself of under the decrees of the Constitution. 

THE SEVENTH LIE: THE GREAT POPULAR ASPIRATIONS 

The revolutionists impressed upon Mr. Wilson the neces- 
sity of putting an end to the Huerta Government, as the 
usurper was the greatest obstacle to the fulfillment of the 
people's aspirations — the possession of the land monopolized 
by the landowners. 

In Part First I have proved that the northern states, 
Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Coahuila and the 
northern part of Tamaulipas, do not possess lands suitable 



228 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

for agriculture, that their greatest source of wealth lies first 
in their mines, and secondly in their forests and grazing 
lands. I have proved that the amount of arable land is in- 
significant; that the day wage in the north was high, and 
that the poorer class gave little or no thought to the distri- 
bution of lands. I shall proceed to confirm these statements. 

The leading Mexican Socialists, Senores Ricardo and 
Enrique Flores Magon, who are well known in the United 
States, took Chihuahua for their principal field of action. 
Other socialist advocates of the distribution .of lands, 
among them the socialist poet, Praxedis Guerrero, worked 
energetically for the cause in Chihuahua. Before Madero 
launched his revolution, guerrilla bands calling themselves 
Magonistas, had been in revolt, but had not succeeded in ac- 
complishing much in the three months they had been active. 
It is evident that if the masses in Chihuahua had been enthu- 
siastic for the distribution of lands, they would have joined 
the Magonistas in 1910, and not the Maderistas, because the 
latter, neither in Chihuahua nor out of it, had ever held out 
the distribution of lands as an inducement. They were not 
upholders of socialist tenets and their first object was to 
get rid of the Magonista revolutionary bands. 

Senor Braulio Hernandez, an ex-schoolmaster and ex-sec- 
retary of the Abraham Gonzalez administration in Chihua- 
hua, took as his motto "Lands and Justice," in an attempt to 
recruit adherents for the Vazquez Gomez campaign, which 
in 19 1 3 was in the last stages of dissolution. Seeing that 
no one paid any attention to him, he offered to give lands 
gratuitously, without the beneficiaries being held in any way 
responsible. Still no one was enthusiastic, and he offered to 
exempt all the owners of small landholdings from P'ederal, 
state and municipal taxes. And even so the Vazquez 
Gomez cause was not sustained! 

Every one knows that at the present time Senor Venustl- 
ano Carranza is taken up with the Oaxaca campaign. The 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 229 

state of Oaxaca has a population of 1,200,000 inhabitants, 
almost all of them full-blooded Indians, organized in vil- 
lages having municipal rights, vi^ho neither possess nor desire 
to possess lands individually Seeing in the revolution noth- 
ing but a program of systematic pillage and looting, they 
have taken up arms to defend their property. The repre- 
sentatives from Oaxaca wearied of reiterating in the House 
that their state was not Maderista, that it never had been, 
and never would be, in sympathy with the revolution. 

The state of Vera Cruz has a population of 1,400,000 in- 
habitants and, after Yucatan, is the most flourishing state 
in the Republic. In this state, in Cordoba, Coatepec and 
Huatusco, there are more individual Indian landowners than 
in any other state. These lands are rich and excellent coffee 
is raised upon them. This state produces as good tobacco 
as that grown in Cuba, also vanilla, sugar, rubber, and high- 
grade cattle. The richest petroleum fields in Mexico are 
also situated there. It is the leading manufacturing center 
and, after the City of Mexico, the most important commer- 
cial center. A flourishing state such as this, where want is 
unknown, where the day wage is high, where money is easily 
earned, is not a revolutionary center, especially when it sees 
that in practice all the revolution accomplishes is to ruin 
everything it touches. If Vera Cruz has in great measure 
escaped the pillage and destruction that has elsewhere pre- 
vailed, it is due to the fact that the Carranzista leader, Seilor 
Candido Aguilar, is not a barbarian but a man of civilized 
instincts. He was born in Cordoba and loves his native 
place as well as all the state, and has been assiduous in pro- 
tecting it from the ravages of the revolution. Woe betide 
Vera Cruz if Aguilar is taken from her ! 

The states of Yucatan, Chiapas, Jalisco, Guanajuato, part 
of the states of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, all of Quere- 
taro, almost all of Michoacan, all of Guerrero, the greater 
part of Hidalgo and the sierra of Puebla, did not join the 



230* WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Madero revolution because of expectation of grants of land. 
Neither before nor afterwards was any such inducement 
offered. 

The indifference of the majority of the rural classes to the 
agrarian question may be explained in the following man- 
ner. The villages where the land is held in common under 
municipal government, still quite numerous, have always 
fought against breaking up this system and subdividing the 
land into individual holdings. Those who do not live under 
this regime have from practical experience learned a fact 
that Mr. Wilson, and all Americans who for any reason 
whatsoever are interested in the Mexican question, ought to 
know. It is this. If the rainfall in Mexico were regular, and 
the crops therefore assured, it would be more profitable for the 
Indian and mestizo farmers to own their own land than to 
work that of another on a co-partnership basis. But, taking 
into consideration the direful consequences of the irregular 
rainfall, as I have explained them in Part First, it is better to 
work on the co-partnership basis than to be an individual 
landowner. The reason is not difficult to find. If the co-part- 
ner's crops fail or are very poor, the planter — the cruel land- 
owner of Avhom we have heard so much — looks out for him 
and his family that they may not starve to death. Whatever 
is advanced to him is charged to his account — an account 
he will never pay, and one which will never be exacted of 
him. Let us take a co-partner in the state of Guanajuato as 
an example. He receives, let us say, five hectares of arable 
land from the planter, the seed, the plough, the yoke of 
oxen and whatever else he may need. If the crop is har- 
vested, half goes to the planter and half to the co-partner; 
the feed of the oxen during the time he has had them, the 
value of the seed, at cost price and one-half of the cost of 
harvesting, transportation and husking, being discounted 
from the co-partner's share. As the farmers know that in 
the cold and temperate zones it is far more profitable to be 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 231 

a co-partner than a proprietor, they naturally do not mani- 
fest great enthusiasm for the much-discussed distribution of 
lands. In the state of Morelos it is different, because, as I 
have already explained, it is in the hot zone and it is more 
profitable to be a proprietor there than a co-partner. I have 
also explained that in Morelos the lands set apart for the 
cultivation of rice and sugar-cane v^^ere about one-fifth of the 
total arable land, and that the rest was leased by the planters 
to the ranchmen, usually belonging to the lower class, who 
employed the Indians to work for them. The struggle in 
Morelos in reality consists in obliging the planters to sell or 
lease the lands to the Indian day-laborers, and not to the 
ranchmen. 

Outside the states of Morelos, Mexico, the southern part 
of Puebla, Tlaxcala and a very restricted portion of Hidalgo, 
San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, the popular rural classes have 
not the least desire for the distribution of the land. If, to- 
gether with this, we take into consideration that no one in 
Mexico, from 1867 to the present day, has ever opposed the 
distribution of the land — if done under the terms of the 
Constitution and the lawful rights of the owners protected — 
it would appear that the revolution has been superfluous, to 
say the least. The planters decline to be robbed, and in this 
they are supported by all Mexicans who are not bandits. 
The situation would be identical in the United States if there 
were question of subdividing lands that had been taken from 
their rightful owners at the point of the bayonet. All this 
clearly demonstrates that a revolution was not necessary to 
solve the question of the distribution of the Mexican lands. 
It did not call for a drop of blood; for the sacrifice of even 
the most insignificant life; nor for even the slightest incon- 
venience to any one. Much less did it require that the Pres- 
ident of the United States should compromise his fair name, 
that of his Government and the peace and tranquillity of the 
American people. 



232 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

THE EIGHTH LIE: HUERTA's OPPOSITION TO PROGRESS AND 

REFORM 

General Huerta's enemies sought and succeeded in pre- 
senting him to the world as the avowed enemy of the re- 
demption of the Mexican people by the distribution of land. 
This is the most cynical lie of which the political revolu- 
tionists — the purveyors of lies worthy of the illiterate lower 
classes — have been guilty. In March, 19 13, one month 
after General Huerta had assumed the power, Senor Toribio 
Esquivel Obregon, his Secretary of the Treasury, introduced 
a bill in the House of Representatives, asking in the Pres- 
ident's name for an appropriation of several million pesos to 
be used to buy lands for the purpose of distributing them 
am.ong the poor farmers. The record of the bill may be 
found in the Diario Oficial de los Estados Unidos Mexi- 
canos, in the Diario de los Debates de la Cdmara de Diputa- 
doSj in the files of the House of Representatives, in the ar- 
chives of the Treasury Department, in the files of the state 
Legislatures, and in all the leading newspapers of the day 
published in the City of Mexico. It is impossible to deny that 
in 1913 General Huerta initiated what Senor Carranza is 
at present thinking of doing — buying lands from the planters 
to be divided among the poor farmers or villagers, with the 
idea of dowering them with municipal rights. Mr. Wilson 
and the American people ought to be convinced, in view of 
the fact I have just stated, how deceived they have been by 
the barefaced assertion of the revolutionary politicians that 
two parties are struggling in Mexico; one desiring to redeem 
the people by giving them land; the other wishing to starve 
them to death by keeping them subject to the landowners. 
Later, when speaking of these revolutionists as reformers, I 
shall return to the subject once more. 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 233 



THE INJUSTICE OF PRESIDENT WILSON TOWARD THE 
FEDERAL ARMY 

The defection of the Federal army which overthrew Ma- 
dero has caused President Wilson great and deep-seated con- 
sternation. From the moral point of view nothing could be 
more reprehensible than this defection of the Federal forces; 
from the sociological point of view nothing was more logical. 
In politics everything is allowable that comes under the juris- 
diction of human law, which is as inflexible as the law gov- 
erning the planetary system. It is not necessary to be as 
learned a man as Mr. Wilson to understand that an army 
made up almost entirely of socialists cannot be forced to be 
loyal to aristocrats and plutocrats who, according to social- 
ist doctrines, have robbed the people. It would be just as 
impossible to expect the nobles who fought in the battle of 
Agincourt to be loyal to the Barcelona anarchists, the Rus- 
sian nihilists or the French liberators. The army is an arm 
belonging to the social class of which its personnel is com- 
posed. If the army is composed exclusively of Catholics, it 
is absolute folly to believe that this army could ever cham- 
pion Protestantism or Mohammedanism. It is necessary, in 
order to have a strictly national army, that it be composed 
of representatives of all social classes, and in such proportion 
that class interest shall never come in conflict with national, 
government or other class interests. 

Mr. Wilson does not know what the Mexican army is, 
or what it has been, since the War of Independence down to 
1 9 10. The Indian race, with insignificant exceptions, forms 
the largest contingent of the national forces. Since the War 
of Independence it has been evident that the Indians, who 
had risen under the leadership of Cura Hidalgo, being con- 
vinced that the only thought of the Creoles was to exploit 
them instead of the Spaniards, showed great indifference to- 



234 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ward a cause that did not interest them, and fought as brave- 
ly in the ranks of the loyalists as in that of the insurgents. 
It was quite a usual thing for the victorious leader to trans- 
fer to his ranks the prisoners he had just captured from his 
vanquished foe, and it has been known that Indians who in 
the morning had fought against the Spaniards, were to be 
found in the afternoon fighting in the Spanish ranks against 
their own brothers. The same phenomenon was observed 
during the Reform War between Catholics and non-Cath- 
olics. In this the Indians, notwithstanding the fact that 
they were Catholics, won the anti-Catholic cause, fighting 
in its ranks. In the W^ar of Intervention against the French, 
the Indians fought indifferently either in the Mexican or in 
the French ranks — a fact that is explained by the absolute 
passivity of the Indian, which renders him such a fit subject 
for military discipline. The Indian can never be the 
soldier of the present day, an autonomous soldier; he, how- 
ever, is the most perfect example of the automatic soldier. 
This explanation should serve to convince the people that 
previous to 1 910 the soul that vivified the Mexican army 
was its officered body, and as all its members belonged to 
the middle class, the army had to be loyal to the middle class 
only, its natural owner. 

In 1 9 10 seventy per cent of the middle class was bureau- 
cratic; consequently, the master of the army was the bureau-' 
cracy that General Diaz had founded and that was, there- 
fore, Porflrista. 

Senor Francisco Madero triumphed, and notwithstanding 
the fact that he was not acceptable to the army because he 
was a civilian, and because he had villified it so outrageously, 
the army apparently decided to support him loyally. But 
this loyalty was feigned. The army's real loyalty was for 
its master, the bureaucratic class, and as Madero, following 
counsels of his uncle, Ernesto Madero, and his cousin, Rafael 
Hernandez, declared that he would respect the rights of the 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 235 

bureaucrats, leaving them in their various public posts, the 
bureaucrats ordered the army to support Madero. 

Zapata raised the standard of revolt in the south. He w^as 
the idol of the Indians of Morelos and the leader of masses 
who hated the whites and the mestizos, and who clamored 
for the destruction of the Porfirian bureaucratic system that 
Madero had protected. Naturally, the middle class, forced 
to defend its prerogatives, appealed to its own, and once 
more we find the Mexican army loyally defending Madero 
against Zapata's hordes. 

Orozco raised the standard of revolt in the north. He 
was the representative of the popular and sub-popular classes, 
bent upon overthrowing not only Madero but the entire 
Porfirian bureaucratic system — that is, snatching the su- 
preme power which it had wielded since 1867, from the 
hands of the middle class. Once more, as was quite natural, 
the army supported Madero. 

But Senor Luis Cabrera, the leader of the Maderista ma- 
jority in the House of Representatives, had sounded his well- 
known warning: "La Revolucion es la Revolucion," which, 
interpreted by him, meant that all the host of public em- 
ployees in Federal and state departments, dating from the 
dictatorship, should be turned out. The bureaucracy pricked 
up its ears. It saw that Senor Pino Suarez, the Vice-Presi- 
dent and the sub-chief of the Forra, the group of agitators 
that had been organized by Gustavo Madero, of which I 
have already spoken, held the same views as Senor Cabrera, 
and that, notwithstanding the protection of President Ma- 
dero, the em.ployees of the Department of Public Instruction, 
which was under the direction of Senor Pino Suarez, were 
being dismissed. The bureaucracy knew that until Septem- 
ber, 1 91 2, when the majority was carried by the Maderlstas, 
its protectors had been Ernesto Madero, Rafael Hernandez 
and the House of Representatives. This majority declared 
itself a "reform majority," by which they meant a reform of 



236 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the public service, which, according to them, ought to pass 
to the sub-popular leaders and the state bureaucrats. The 
majority, headed by Senores Pino Suarez and Cabrera and 
the Secretaries of the Treasury and the Interior, both par- 
tisans of the conservative policy, declared war to the knife. 
Suddenly the official press took up the cudgels for Gustavo 
Madero, who was made to appear the enemy instead of the 
originator of the Porra. The bureaucracy saw that they had 
arrayed against them the invincible force of the radical mob 
element. It was then that the powerful bureaucratic class, 
representing seventy per cent of the middle class, turned to 
the army, its natural protector, and carefully prepared it for 
the attack upon Madero and the Porra. A man of Mr. Wil- 
son's learning should not attempt in politics to measure with 
the strict rule of Christian morality. Never in the history 
of the world has it been known that a social political body, 
finding itself threatened with extinction, has not, in order to 
save itself, appealed to every means within its reach, ethical 
or unethical. Mr. Wilson will find ample proof of this in 
Germany's submarine policy, surely far more unethical than 
the defection of an army to save one class of society, threat- 
ened with extermination by another class, incapable of mercy. 
Before finishing with this subject I shall recall to Mr. Wil- 
son's mind, and to that of all Americans, that the famous 
American War of Secession opened with the treason of the 
South, and the defection of that portion of the Federal army 
which sympathized with them. For the North this defection 
was a detestable act of treason; for the South it was a sub- 
lime act of patriotism, an act of loyalty to the Southern 
cause. This act has been glorified in the South; statues 
have been erected to the men who in 1861 were branded as 
traitors; streets, public squares and popular buildings have 
been named for them to immortalize their memory. 

The defection of the Mexican Federal army in February, 
19 1 3, was not a mere act of disloyalty, but the fulfillment 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 237 

of an inexorable duty. Military discipline stood face to face 
with a century-old discipline which stood for the supremacy 
of the educated over the illiterate. The Mexican middle 
class, notwithstanding its deficiencies, its weaknesses and its 
vices, has rights because of its merits to represent Mexican 
civilization. The defection of a great part of the American 
Federal army to the Southern cause was an act of loyalty to 
the class to which it belonged, although this class upheld the 
principle of slavery. 

Senores Pino Suarez and Cabrera, on account of their 
Marat tendencies, were Madero's worst enemies and more 
than any one else responsible for the fall of their chief. Pino 
Suarez paid with his life for his political errors. Cabrera 
has been more fortunate; he is making his country pay for 
them. 

THE REAL HUERTA 

Similar social conditions must necessarily produce similar 
forms of government. I am going to draw an analogy be- 
tween the social conditions that produced Napoleon and 
those that produce our Spanish-American dictators of the 
Huerta type, basing it upon Taine's study of Napoleon I: 
"Morals and manners there (Corsica) adapted themselves to 
each other through an unfailing connection. The moral law, 
indeed, is such because similar customs prevailed in all coun- 
tries and at all times where the police is powerless, where 
justice cannot be obtained, where public interests are in the 
hands of whoever can lay hold of them, where private war- 
fare is pitiless and not repressed, where every man goes 
armed, where every sort of weapon is fair, and where dis- 
simulation, fraud, and trickery, as well as gun or poniard, 
are allowed, which was the case in Corsica in the eighteenth 
century, as in Italy in the fifteenth century — 'In this coun- 
try',' report the French Commissioners, 'the people have no 



238 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

idea of principle in the abstract,' nor of social interest or 
justice. 'Justice does not exist; one hundred and thirty as- 
sassinations have occurred in two years. The institution of 
juries has deprived the country of all means of punishing 
crime; never do the strongest proofs, the clearest evidences, 
lead a jury composed of men of the same party, or of the 
same family as the accused, to convict him; and if the ac- 
cused is of the opposite party, the juries likewise acquit him, 
so as not to incur the risk of revenge, 'slow perhaps but al- 
ways sure.' 'Public spirit is unknown.' There is no social 
body, except 'any number of small parties inimical to each 
other. . . . All the leaders have the same end in view, that 
of getting money no matter by what means, and their first 
care is to surround themselves with creatures entirely de- 
voted to them and to whom they give all the offices. The 
elections are held under arms, and all with violence. The 
victorious party uses its authority to avenge itself of that 
which is beaten, and multiplies vexations and outrages. The 
leaders form aristocratic leagues with each other and mu- 
tually tolerate abuses. They impose no assessment or col- 
lection (of taxes) to curry favor with the electors through 
party spirit and relationships. Customs-duties serve simply 
to compensate friends and relatives. . . .' " 

"Accordingly, at the outbreak of the Revolution, on revisit- 
ing Corsica, he (Napoleon) takes life at once as he finds it 
there, a combat with any sort of weapon, and, on this small 
arena, he acts unscrupulously, going farther than anybody. 
If he respects justice and law, it is only in words, and even 
here ironically; in his eyes, law is a term of the code, justice 
a book term, while might makes right. 

"A second blow of the coining-press gives another im- 
pression of the same stamp on this character, already so de- 
cided, while French anarchy forces maxims into the mind of 
the young man, already traced in the child's mind by Cor- 
sican anarchy; the lessons of things provided by a society go- 



THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF LIES 239 

ing to pieces are the same as those of a society which is not 
yet formed. His sharp eyes at a very early period see 
through the flourish of theory and the parade of phrases; 
they detect the real foundation of the Revolution, namely, 
the sovereignty of unbridled passion and the conquest of the 
majority by the minority; conquering and conquered, a 
choice must be made between these two extreme conditions; 
there is no middle course. After the 9th of Thermidor, the 
last veils are torn away, and the instinct of license and dom- 
ination, the ambitions of individuals, fully display them- 
selves; there is no concern for public interests or for the 
rights of the people; it is clear that the rulers form a band, 
that France is their prey, and that they intend to hold on to 
it for and against everybody, by every possible means, in- 
cluding bayonets. Under this civil regime, a clean sweep of 
the broom at the center makes it necessary to be on the side 
of numbers. . . ." 

". . . All this is understood between the general and his 
army from the first, and after one year's experience, the 
understanding is perfect. One moral is derived from their 
common acts, vague in the army, precise in the general ; what 
the army only half sees, he sees clearly; if he urges his com- 
rades on, it is because they follow their own inclination. He 
simply has the start of them, and quicker makes up his mind 
that the world is a great banquet, free to the first-comer, but 
at which, to be well served, one must have long arms, be the 
first to get helped, and let the rest take what is left."^ 

Huerta was not specifically perverse, he was simply un- 
moral. The specifically perverse person is like the dipso- 
maniac; the latter cannot live without alcohol; the former 
has not conception of life but that of doing harm to his fel- 
low beings. 

An unmoral man does not take into account whether his 

iTaine, The Modern Regime (Holt, New York, 1890), Vol. I, 

p. 49, sqq- 



240 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

actions are good or had; his conduct is directed hy the pas- 
sion that dominates him. If this exacts fifty years of sub- 
lime acts of virtue, he performs them and dies leaving a rep- 
utation for great sanctity. If it exacts fifty years of crimes, 
he commits them without emotion or preoccupation. The 
majority of dictators are unmoral, and as, according to 
iEschylus, the gods preside over justice even though they love 
it, a dictator vv^ho is not perverse is willing to give his coun- 
try every benefit and advantage so long as it does not clash 
with his ambition. This explains why Huerta was willing 
to grant all manner of benefits to the Mexican people. He 
knew that public opinion is a great power in upholding a 
government, and he also knew that the wealthy classes were 
practically useless, so far as their support was concerned, 
when they were not inclined to give their money or their 
blood. 



CHAPTER II 

PRESIDENT WILSON AND FIRST CHIEF 
CARRANZA 

CONSTITUTIONALISM IN ITS REALITY 

WHEN Constitutionalism first made its appearance 
was it in reality Constitutionalism? 
The State of Sonora was the first to refuse 
allegiance to the Government which sprang from the coup 
of February i8, 191 3. The real reason for this attitude is 
fully explained and well attested by Mr. Edward I. Bell, 
an American writer, who says : 

"General Huerta, on February i8th, telegraphed to the 
Governor of Sonora that he held Madero prisoner. Two 
days later he telegraphed again, announcing his elevation 
to the provisional presidency and demanding instant ac- 
ceptance of the new order. To refuse meant war with the 
consequent loss to many important American interests in 
that State, and with this in mind Louis Hostetter, United 
States Consul at Hermosillo, the Capital of Sonora, used 
his strong personal influence to induce the State Govern- 
ment to yield to Huerta's demand. He succeeded in this, 
when the assassination of Madero and Pino Suarez aroused 
resentment and overthrew the agreement. 

"At this stage Mr. Hostetter received a telegram from 
Ambassador Wilson, directing him to do everything in his 
power to induce Sonora to accept Huerta as President, and 
telling the Consul that the majority of the Mexican States 
had already done so. Hostetter at once applied himself 
with increased vigor, and made such progress with the au- 

241 



242 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

thorlties that they requested a list from the Ambassador of 
the States which he positively knew had accepted Huerta, 
promising that if this list showed an actual majority, Sonora 
would not hold out against the new ruling. The Consul 
telegraphed this request with its assurances in the full be- 
lief that he had accomplished that which the Ambassador 
had requested him to do; that the list would be immediately 
forthcoming and that all would be well. 

"Receiving no reply, Consul Hostetter telegraphed again, 
urging the necessity for detailed information. Still there 
was no answer, whereupon the officials of Sonora declared 
themselves unwilling to wait for a trap to be sprung which 
would find them unprepared. The State Congress or Legis- 
lature than framed a resolution refusing allegiance to Huerta 
and also voted a leave of absence to Governor Maytorena, 
who was believed to be too complacent toward the attempt 
of Huerta to reduce the State to a dependency of an abso- 
lute military dictatorship. Governor Maytorena departed 
for California, and Rafael Pesqueira was made acting Gov- 
ernor in his stead. 

"But Consul Hostetter did not give up his efforts to pre- 
serve the peace of the State. For several days he labored 
with the officials, and finally the Legislature passed a reso- 
lution which the Consul telegraphed to the Ambassador. It 
provided that if Huerta would guarantee to Sonora State 
rights, withdraw the few Federal troops then stationed there, 
and permit the State to elect its own officials, a commission 
would be sent to Mexico City to arrange details. The Leg- 
islature was strongly influenced toward caution in these ne- 
gotiations by the fate which had overtaken Governor Gon- 
zalez of Chihuahua, whose acceptance of Huerta had not 
been forwarded so promptly as was desired." ^ 

Mr. Bell's account proves that Sonora's failure to recog- 
nize Huerta was not due to his usurpation of the national 

1 Edward I. Bell, The Political Shame of Mexico, pp. 332, 333. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 243 

supremacy, for which the ruling powers did not give a rap, 
as they had consented to recognize the usurper if he promised 
to respect the sovereignty of Sonora. What interested them 
was to preserve their power in the State of Sonora, and to 
proclaim local constitutionalism and the inviolability of State 
democracy. 

On February 18, 19 13, Senor Venustiano Carranza, then 
governor of Coahuila, received the following telegram from 
Huerta: "Authorized by the Senate, I have assumed the 
Executive Power, the President and his Cabinet being held 
prisoners," 

Senor Carranza protested against Huerta's illegal action, 
and with the consent of the Legislature issued a manifesto 
declaring that he would offer armed resistance, urging all the 
governors to follow his example. 

It is probable that Carranza was influenced to agree to 
the conference with General Blazquez, who came to Sal- 
tillo from Monterey to see him, by the fact that all the gov- 
ernors, with the exception of the provisional governor of 
Sonora, had submitted unconditionally to Huerta. General 
Huerta commissioned Senor Rafael Ramos Arizpe, an inti- 
mate friend of Senor Carranza, to use his influence to ob- 
tain his friend's submission. Senor Ramos Arizpe accepted 
the commission, and made known through the columns of 
El Imparcial that Senor Carranza had expressed his willing- 
ness to discuss the question of his submission to General 
Huerta with Senor Ramos Arizpe and Senoir Eliseo Ar- 
redondo, who would come at once to the capital from Sal- 
tillo for this purpose. In due time he arrived and the 
negotiations were under way when the news was received of 
the proclamation of the Plan de Guadalupe by the governor 
of Coahuila and the State troops. This unexpected turn on 
Carranza's part was attributed to the fact that he had heard 
of the assassination of Abraham Gonzalez, governor of Chi- 
huahua, notwithstanding the fact that he had submitted to 



244 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Huerta. The policy of assassination that was then being 
followed was a serious drawback to the pacification of the 
country. 

It seems indispensable for the development of my plan that 
I portray Don Venustiano Carranza as he appears to me. 

Physical characteristics: He produces a favorable impres- 
sion, resembling in appearance a Spanish diplomat at the Al- 
gesiras Conference; weight, probably 80 kilos; military 
weight, o; political weight, unknown; moral weight, aver- 
age, although threatened with ruin by symptoms of a well- 
developed ambition; voice, mellow and unruffled; character, 
quiet, serene, tenacious, coldly calculating, rancorous, al- 
though balanced to a certain extent by prudence; cautious, 
although liable to eruptions; sensibility to adulation, 99°. 35 
centigrade; deficient in knowledge of the social forces actu- 
ally at war, and above all in knowledge of human nature. 

Career: An ardent admirer of General Bernardo Reyes, 
for twenty-three years the tyrant of Nuevo Leon and Coa- 
huila, and a man obsessed by militarism. General Reyes 
obtained the official election of Senor Carranza as senator 
from his State to the Federal Senate, where he remained a 
great many years without manifesting any policy other than 
that of inflexible, unconditional adherence to the dictator. 
During his long senatorial career Senor Carranza simply 
vegetated; in other words, he was a nonentity, whose politi- 
cal progress was as noiseless as that of a rubber-tired ve- 
hicle. In 1908 he was accepted as assistant governor of 
Coahuila at the recommendation of General Reyes, who 
vouched with his head for Senor Carranza's absolute loyalty. 
The rupture between the dictator and General Reyes in 
1909 destroyed the combination and Seilor Cardenas replaced 
Senor Carranza as governor of Coahuila. When the Ma- 
dero revolution broke out, Senor Carranza appeared at the 
opportune moment to reap his generous share in the spoils 
of \\ ar. In this revolution Senor Carranza was not a com- 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 245 

batant, a diplomat or an adviser, but simply one of those 
fortunate individuals who are carried forward on the crest 
of the wave at the moment when a revolution is dispensing 
favors with a lavish hand. When Madero triumphed, 
Senor Carranza replaced the Porfirian governor, Senor Valle. 
He carefully laid the foundation for his campaign without 
being troubled by rival candidates, withdrawing during the 
elections in feigned deference to the principle of non-reelec- 
tion. Huerta's coup found him installed as the governor of 
Coahuila without having received the praise or the censure 
of the independent press. 

Hamilton Fyfe in his interesting book has written with 
independence and a critical spirit what he observed in Mex- 
ico during the Carranza revolution. He says: "All the 
foreign colony here and many Mexicans are convinced that 
Carranza was preparing to rebel against Madero. He had 
supported the Maderista movement, but is said to have been 
dissatisfied and restless after its success." ^ 

"They allege that for months Carranza had been draw- 
ing large sums of money from the National Treasury for the 
purpose of paying troops. It might be that he foresaw the 
anti-Madero outbreak and was preparing to support his 
chief. That view obtains no credence in Saltillo. The be- 
lief there is, among the people who knew and watched him, 
that he would have declared war against Madero, just as 
General Orozco, another Maderista leader, had done." ^ 

An American newpaper announced that Senor Carranza, 
together with the leader, Cuajardo, had already planned the 
revolt against Madero, but was forestalled by Huerta. 

This is not certain. Time alone will determine the ver- 
dict that history is to hand down to posterity. In any case, 
in March, 191 3, Don Venustiano Carranza, as a revolu- 
tionary leader, was an undetermined quantity. 

1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 77. 

2 Idem, pp. 77, 78. 



246 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Senor Jose N. Macias, one of the apologists for the con- 
ditions that Carranza's policies have brought about, has said, 
referring to the Plan de Guadalupe with which Carranza 
inaugurated his revolutionary career: "As is quite evident, 
these articles contain nothing of a political nature; this has 
occasioned very bitter censure. . . .".^ 

Theoretically, and in a country where dictatorships are 
unknown, the Plan de Guadalupe would be a strictly po- 
litical document. Nevertheless, Macias is right. In Mex- 
ico the proclamation of the reestablishment of the Constitu- 
tion has no political bearing. No one will be stirred thereby; 
no one will be moved in his frenzy to pull his hair out by 
the roots, nay, not even to sacrifice a single hair. The Mex- 
ican people have lost faith in promises to make them happy 
and prosperous by the enforcement of the Constitution. It 
is like promising them forty days and forty nights of contin- 
ual showers of diamonds and gold. Documents of this kind 
are looked upon as ridiculous, their executors losing in the 
eyes of the people their claim to recognition as reputable 
leaders. 

Before the Madero revolution there were many believers 
in democracy to be found in the popular classes, but since 
the Madero fiasco no propositions to establish democracy 
have had a market value in the country. They have all been 
exported to Washington in the hope of finding a market for 
them there. The Plan de Guadalupe amounted to less than 
nothing. The Mexican people looked upon it with absolute 
disdain. 



A RACE UTTERLY UNSUITED TO DEMOCRACY 

The Plan de Guadalupe should have been shelved, care- 
fully labelled "The Fiasco." Mr. Wilson, however, im- 
prudently took it upon himself to keep it alive. Senor Pedro 

1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, p. 235. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 247 

Lamicq, a Maderista partisan, has said : "Even at the risk of 
ruffling the feelings of the extreme patriots, this sad truth 
must be confessed: The United States will demolish or over- 
throw, should it be proposed to it, any government that may- 
be established in Mexico." ^ 

From this morbid belief, which has existed among the ma- 
jority in Mexico for many years, an untenable revolutionary 
policy has evolved. Since 19 10 the revolutionists have pro- 
claimed that, inasmuch as the United States Government 
was hostile to General Diaz, the dictator, actuated by pa- 
triotic motives, and to prevent being deposed by the White 
House, should have resigned in favor of Madero. Accord- 
ing to this preposterous doctrine every Mexican president is 
obliged to put the Mexican Government, its society and its 
civilization into the hands of the first revolutionist, maniac 
or bandit, who may present himself, if it pleases the Presi- 
dent of the United States to say: "This Government does 
not suit me." He does not even have to raise his voice. It 
will suffice for him to permit — contrary to all the laws of 
neutrality — two or three scheming politicians or highway- 
men to hold revolutionary conclaves in San Antonio or El 
Paso, demonstrating to the Mexican people that the Presi- 
dent of the United States is with them because he does not 
fulfill his positive obligation of denying them right to plot 
revolutions in neutral territory. The present revolution in 
particular has served to prescribe, according to revolutionary 
concepts, the most glorious way of betraying the fatherland. 
President Wilson was aware of this preposterous doctrine, 
which handed Mexican sovereignty over to him to do with 
it as he saw fit; and the idealist Wilson took advantage of 
the opportunity to essay laboratory experiments of his senti- 
mental theories upon 15,000,000 human beings. Accord- 
ing to the experimenter, they ought to embrace a superior 
form of government like that of the United States, be- 

1 Pedro Lamicq, Madero Intimo, p. 43. 



248 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

cause, forsooth, he is convinced, as he says in the columns of 
The Saturday Evening Post, that all the people are fit for a 
democratic form of government if only they are properly 
guided, even if this guide be the chief of a foreign nation. 

President Wilson has caused me some sleepless nights. I 
have been unable to fathom how a man of his erudition, 
whose field is sociology and not fiction, has failed to be im- 
pressed by the fact that not one of the sixteen Latin-Ameri- 
can nations has been able in the course of one hundred years 
to establish a democratic form of government, notwithstand- 
ing that they have had as guides men eminent for their 
talent, their virtue, their learning, their civism, their activ- 
ity, and a zeal for their country's welfare which has carried 
them to the sublimest heights of patriotism and self-abnega- 
tion. These men devoted themselves to trying to transform 
their countrymen into democrats, without obtaining anything 
beyond what the laws of social usage dictate in accordance 
with the inexorable laws of evolution. President Wilson 
should know that in Mexico the height of skepticism has been 
reached with regard to liberty and democracy. This truth 
has been learned after traversing a long and tortuous road, 
strewn with blood, crimes, infamies, heroic deeds, hallucina- 
tions, inconceivable depths of depravity, crushed ideals and 
suicidal tendencies, born of desperation. Those of us who 
know what Mexico really is have not learned it by sojourn- 
ing in Minnesota or New Jersey, or in the Boston library. 
We have learned it from grim realities, pushing us along, 
shaking us by the collar as though we were miserable pig- 
mies, mercilessly treading us under foot, until the tremen- 
dous lesson of sociological truth has been forced upon us. 

Has Mr. Wilson never heard what Bolivar said? "In 
America there is no faith. Treaties are paper; Constitu- 
tions, books; elections, combats; liberty, anarchy, and life a 
torment." 

It may be said that Bolivar spoke these words a century 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 249 

ago, that undoubtedly we have progressed greatly since then. 
Senor Fulgencio Palavicini, at present Secretary of Public 
Instruction in Senor Carranza's Cabinet, in a letter of con- 
gratulation written to Senor Fernandez Cabrera, the poet 
whose lays have glorified the Carrancista cause, says: "Let 
your bugle vibrate with the music of Tyrtaean screeds; let 
your pen unceasingly reassert that the period of gestation has 
been dark, difficult and painful, but that 'la patria is formed, 
that Mexico is about to be born." ^ 

This letter was written about the middle of 191 5. Ac- 
cording to Don Venustiano's secretary Mexico, engendered 
by the revolution, was about to be born then. If Mexico 
was about to be born in 191 5, it means that in 191 3 it was 
in the foetal state and that the Plan de Guadalupe was pro- 
claimed to recover the political rights of an unborn entity! 
And for this arrant folly the Mexican nation has been deso- 
lated, President Wilson giving his support to the destruction. 

Senor Palavicini, whose statements have annihilated the 
revolutionary thesis, says to Senor Fernandez Cabrera : "Our 
problem, the great Mexican national problem, is to civilize 
two-thirds of the native population, which is not a part of 
the real common life of the nation, which is separated from 
the national conscience, and which is exclusively represented 
by the active, intelligent direction of one-third of the popu- 
lation." 2 

While President Wilson in his much-applauded Indianap- 
olis address was informing the American people and the 
Latin-American nations that the Mexican people had been 
redeemed, that they were masters of their own destinies, and 
that he expected that the liberty they had won would be well 
used for the benefit of the eighty-five per cent formerly op- 
pressed, but since the fall of Huerta, free and sovereign ; the 
irrepressible Palavicini was placing the President of the 

1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, p. 280. 

2 Idem, p. 282. 



250 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

United States in rather an embarrassing situation by declar- 
ing that two-thirds of the Mexican people were not a part 
of the common life of the nation, that they were separated 
from the national conscience, and that two-thirds were ex- 
clusively represented by the one-third cultured portion of the 
nation. A startling contrast ! It does not enhance President 
Wilson's reputation for scholarship. But the reformer Pala- 
vicini does not escape Senor Fernandez Cabrera. He takes 
him by the ear and holds him up to the gaze of the Mexican 
people, when Seiior Palavicini, referring to the native popula- 
tion, calls them "an unredeemable herd of pariahs." ^ 

This semi-official assertion puts the finishing touch upon 
Mr. Wilson as the idealistic improviser of democracies. This 
assertion of Carranza's Secretary of Public Instruction com- 
pletely discredits the Indianapolis discourse in so far as the 
supposed redemption of the unfortunate eighty-five per cent 
is concerned. Mr. Hamilton Fyfe sides with the secretary, 
after having reached his conclusions concerning the Mexican 
social and political situation from personal observation. Mr. 
Fyfe says: "It is true that the Constitutionalist leaders say 
that they are defending the Republican idea, the democratic, 
as opposed to the despotic form of government. But they 
have no real faith in democracy. The United States officer 
in command of the frontier detachment at Laredo was vis- 
ited by a deputation of insurrectos from across the border. 
He listened to them politely, then he said: 'But if, as you 
say, you have an overwhelming majority of the people with 
you, why do not you take part in the Presidential election, 
return yoxir candidate, and have him recognized by the 
United States?' They looked at one another doubtfully. 
'Ah, Senor,' they answered, 'we never thought of that.' " ^ 

That American officer understood the Mexican problem 
much better than the White House, with all its corps of 

1 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi maje a Mexico, p. 171. 

2 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 64. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 251 

specialists devoted to the solution of great political problems. 
Mr. Fyfe adds: "The truth is that they realize, even the 
most radical among them, that Mexico cannot govern her- 
self as the United Kingdom and the United States do for 
a very long time to come." ^ And the English writer con- 
cludes by saying: "Yet this young Captain, when we dis- 
cussed possible candidates whom the Constitutionalists might 
put forward for the Presidency, clenched his fist and bring- 
ing it down upon his knee said, 'We must have an energetic 
man. That is what Mexico needs!' An energetic man! 
And that eloquent gesture with the clenched fist! Democ- 
racy was all right in theory, but he knew as well as anybody 
else that in practice it would not work." ^ 

The distinguished Cuban, Senor Marquez Sterling, sent 
Senor M. Fernandez Cabrera to Mexico to study conditions 
there, and as a result of this study Senor Fernandez Cabrera 
has described Don Venustiano Carranza as the representa- 
tive of the "redemptory rebellion," of "brilliant patriotism," 
and of the "crystalline purity of the national Ideals." The 
same writer has characterized Senor Carranza as the "man 
of the hour." 

There can be no doubt that the conclusions drawn by this 
writer upon the Mexican revolution are very favorable to 
Senor Carranza, but they do not redound to the author's 
reputation. In point of fact, Senor Fernandez Cabrera 
found, when he made a practical study of the Indian who 
was driving him from Ometusco to Apam, that this repre- 
sentative of the indigenous race had "a pointed, dolicho- 
cephalic head, low receding forehead, obtuse facial angle of 
38 degrees, obtained only by stretching the compass, opaque, 
yellow skin, weak shrunken shoulders, small ears, restlessly 
active like those of a hare, and an absence of gestures. Ergo, 
of an inferior race." ^ 

1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 64. 

2 Idem, pp. 64, 65. 

3 M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi <viaje a Mexico, p. 51. 



252 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

After the physical examination, the observer passes on to 
the moral, and concludes with these words: 

"Woeful condition denoting a miserable state of igno- 
rance, amorphous and deprived of all power of action — an 
absolute state of human irrationability." ^ 

It is possible that Don Venustiano Carranza represents 
the ideals of this inferior race — very inferior, since it bor- 
ders on irrationality — as the successor of the venerable Fray 
Bartolome de las Casas. One thing is certain, unless Senor 
Carranza is able to transform himself into the Emperor 
Cuauhtemoc, it will be impossible for him to represent the 
political ideals of the Indians. In either case the Consti- 
tutionalism represented by Senor Carranza proves to be an 
idle fiction. We do not find in history, or in any of the 
logical deductions that may be drawn from it, that an in- 
ferior race can live under the regime of a superior govern- 
ment. 

Another writer who visited Mexico In 191 3 tells us, 
speaking of the Mexican papular urban class: "The 
'pelao' ^ is lazy, a drunkard and unmoral. In the haunts 
where he sleeps, in the pulque taverns where he lives, in 
the streets he traverses, the pulsing sway of the mob is felt 
as nowhere else, the sway of that ignorant herd that kills 
or dies with equal equanimity, that is as easily led into 
bondage as to heroic deeds. The air is ladened with misery 
and pain, intensified because no complaint or protest is to be 
heard. All evince the resignation of dumb beasts, relieved 
by the maudlin gaiety that accompanies the reunions around 
the card table, the highest spiritual manifestation In the life 
of the Mexican popular classes. 

"The Indian, as a type, seems less contemptible — perhaps 
because there Is less pretence to civilization — than the 

^ M. Fernandez Cabrera, Mi viaje a Mexico, pp. 170, 171. 
2 Pelado — called "pelao" by the lower classes, is a low-bred 
member of the common people. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 253 

'pelao,' who is a genuine cross between the Indian and the 
European." ^ 

The same writer tersely sums up the position of the In- 
dian when he says: "In a country where crime is sanctioned 
as a political means, where individual personal rights have 
been and are unknown, in a country where half a million 
men possess the right of life and death over thirteen million, 
I do not say men because the unfortunate Mexican Indians 
are not in reality men. . . ." ^ 

The Argentenian journalist has found in the midst of all 
these human elements upon which the revolutionists are 
striving to build the highest form of government — a dem.oc- 
racy, the moral note that characterized the Mexican mind 
in June, 19 13: "Everybody wants to take vengeance on 
everybody else." He might have added, referring to the 
politicians, everybody wants to rob everybody else. 

Hamilton Fyfe, who personally studied the Mexican In- 
dians in their political life, says: "Most of the present 
voters are Indians, incapable of voting intelligently. If they 
vote at all, they vote as their employers direct; or they say 
naively that they would like to vote for the candidate who 
will win ; or they stupidly ask the polling officials ( all active 
politicians) to tell them what to do." ^ 

Mr. Fyfe unerringly points out President Wilson's mis- 
taken views: "But the discrepancy between their profes- 
sions and their avowed policy shows how far the mentality 
of Mexico is distant from that of Europe and the United 
States, and how impossible it is to apply to it, as President 
Wilson persists in doing, the same tests and the same stand- 
ards which obtain in countries where the idea of self-govern- 
ment is a plan of mature growth." * 

1 Tito L. Foppa, La Tragedia Mexicana, p. 52. 

2 Idem, p. 134. 

3 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, pp. i8, 142. 
^ Idem, pp. 18, 142. 



254 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

I think it opportune to repeat here the quotation from 
Victor Hugo which I gave in Part First, applying it to 
Latin- America : "If a man is not a democrat at twenty, he 
has no heart, and the one who is a democrat at forty, either 
lacks sense or shame, or both." The Plan de Guadalupe, 
proclaimed in March, 19 13, could not be anything in the 
eyes of the people, whether they were serious or frivolous, 
virtuous or depraved, but braggadocio, or a simple courtesy 
or delicate attention, so to speak, shown to the public. In 
Spanish countries a polite formula is used by gentlemen 
when addressing ladies: "Beso a usted los pies, Senora" 
(Madam, I kiss your feet) ; but neither does he actually kiss 
her feet, or is there any one who believes that he intends 
to do so. 

To proclaim the reestablishment of the Constitution in 
dictatorial Latin-American nations is equivalent to proclaim- 
ing the "Step down that I may step up" principle, saying 
with a polite bow to the public, "I kiss your feet," or what 
amounts to the same, "Long live the decorative Consti- 
tution !" 

It was an Argentenian thinker, if I remember correctly, 
who said: "It is impossible to have liberty in Spanish- 
America, so long as we have liberators." 

PRESIDENT Wilson's first thrust 

In view of the preposterous revolutionary doctrine spoken 
of in the preceding section, President Wilson's refusal to 
recognize General Huerta as President of Mexico was 
equivalent to declaring war unto death against the Mexican 
Government, and was an insolent act of aggression against 
the sovereignty of Mexico. As I have already said, and as 
all Latin- Americans (and one may say the whole world) 
know, when the United States Government shows hostility 
in any form toward a Latin-American government, because 
this may have refused to comply with its demands, this hos- 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 255 

tility means the eventual overthrow of that government. 
This may be accomplished directly by intervention on the 
part of the United States Government, or indirectly by pro- 
tecting a counter-revolution against the government that 
has defied it. 

President Wilson's first sentiments of hostility toward 
President Huerta were aroused by the impression wrought 
by foul deeds upon a noble nature. The murders perpe- 
trated by the representatives of Mexican militarism had 
awakened a note of sympathy in the hearts of honest people 
the world over, and the odium and contempt of the civilized 
world was heaped upon Huerta in lieu of the place on the 
scaffold to which it would have condemned him. Mr. Ham- 
ilton Fyfe points to Senora Madero, the President's wife, 
as the supreme influence that moulded President Wilson's 
views. He says: "It is said that President Wilson was 
strongly influenced in this direction by the appeal which 
Senora Madero made to him. At all events the quarrel now 
began, in effect, a trial of strength between the two men." ^ 

If, as Mr. Fyfe and other writers have asserted, it is true 
that Senora Madero asked President Wilson for justice 
against her husband's murderers, or for non-recognition of 
Huerta, knowing that non-recognition was equivalent to a 
declaration of war against Mexico, it would have been bet- 
ter to have left justice in the hands of the Almighty than 
to buy it at the price of Mexico's destruction. The ruin of 
Madero's assassin had inevitably to be the ruin of the 
fatherland and the sacrifice of the innocent. If the non- 
recognition of Huerta was due to the pressure brought to 
bear by the Madero family, then history will have to attest 
that if Madero in life brought many misfortunes upon his 
country and spilt much blood in its name, his death has 
brought upon it many more misfortunes. 

President Wilson's idealistic, political policy followed 

1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 132. 



256 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

upon his emotional resolution not to recognize President 
Huerta. His arguments were diametrically opposed to all 
the facts I have given to prove that Mexico is not fitted for 
a democratic form of government. Without a doubt Presi- 
dent Wilson thought that Madero had been freely elected 
president of Mexico. Consequently, it vv^as amply proved 
that in Mexico it was possible to have governments estab- 
lished by popular vote, and he, therefore, commanded and 
decreed that Huerta should retire and allow the Mexican 
people absolute freedom in the election of a president, as had 
been the case when Madero was elected. 

It is possible for a president to be freely elected in Mex- 
ico; but a real statesman would not attempt to establish any 
given form of government upon a possibility. It is possible 
to win a lottery prize of $100,000; but only a lunatic would 
arrange the life of every individual upon the possibility of 
his winning such a prize. The history of Mexico demon- 
strates that any citizen may be freely elected by the people 
if it pleases the president in power to permit it. But if this 
functionary, in order to retain the power or to transmit it 
to a favorite, denies the right of free election, then the only 
possible alternative is a revolution. The election of Madero 
was no exception to the rule. He was freely elected when 
the Madero family was the one actually wielding the power. 
De la Barra had assumed the presidency with the under- 
standing that the Madero family, which possessed all the 
elements of power, should be the actual governing factor. 
Every one in Mexico was aware of this. To establish a 
real democracy it is necessary for the people to be in a posi- 
tion to vote freely, whether or not the president wishes it. 

It is not necessary to go deeply into this. Mr. Wilson 
proved by recognizing the President of Peru, who later than 
Huerta assumed the power at the point of the bayonet, that 
his idealistic views were subject to eclipses when it was not 
a question of Huerta. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 257 

Events have proved that it was never President Wilson's 
intention to resort to armed intervention to overthrow 
Huerta. His program was to protect the revolutionists in 
so far as it was possible, if only they would overthrow 
Huerta. Huerta's position in February, 1913, was formid- 
able. He had at his command 60,000 soldiers, and possessed 
the facilities to increase the force to 200,000 or more. He 
had at his disposal all the Federal revenues which at that 
time were at a maximum. He had the support of all the 
states except part of Sonora and an insignificant section of 
the state of Coahuila. He could count upon the nation's 
credit to the extent of raising 200,000,000, or 300,000,000 
pesos by a single loan. If this failed there remained the op- 
portunity, as yet unabused, of issuing paper money in suf- 
ficient quantity to support his army of 200,000 men for at 
least two 3^ears. He had in his favor the indifference of the 
Indians, except the Zapatistas, and the adherence of the 
aristocratic and middle classes, the clergy, the business men, 
almost all the intellectuals, and the urban and rural lower 
class. Since the Madero fiasco the latter wanted peace, 
well-paid work and prosperity. He had the support of the 
Diplomatic Corps (including the American Ambassador), 
which had recommended him to their respective Govern- 
ments as the only man capable of bringing peace to the 
country. In this opinion all the foreign colonies concurred. 

Carranza, on the other hand, after his declaration of war 
against Huerta in February, 19 13, counted only upon the 
support of a restricted section of the isolated state of Sonora, 
which had an armed force of only 2,000 state troops, with, 
no artillery to back them, and three hundred Rurales of the 
Coahuila state forces. The latter had degenerated into rov- 
ing bands, somewhat demoralized, although they were not 
very hotly pursued. Carranza lacked money, arms, ammuni- 
tion, credit, the support of men of influence, political ability 
and the qualities of leadership. Without the backing of 



258 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

President Wilson his end would have been that of a refugee 
in the United States, or a corpse dangling to the nearest 
tree or lamp-post. 

Carranza could triumph only by means of a long, cruel, 
bloody civil war, anti-social and utterly destructive of prop- 
erty, more terrible in its character and extent than the 
United States War of Secession. 

If PresiHent Wilson's horror of Huerta sprang from a 
noble motive, it cannot be said that his method of punishing 
a murderer by dragging 15,000,000 human beings into an 
exceptionally horrible war was equally noble. It amounts 
to murdering a nation to take revenge on one evil-doer. 

It is curious that President Wilson should have felt so 
much repugnance and contempt for the Mexican conserva- 
tive classes, which approved Huerta's coup, although not 
his murders. Who form these conservative classes? All 
those who do not want to fall under the despotic rule of 
even the city rabble, much less that of the rural populace, 
whose unbridled license reaches a point of inconceivable 
bestiality. Madero having failed, the power had to fall 
into the hands of the rural popular class, which had obtained 
it in 1 9 10; and every one, even if he were not a planter, an 
aristocrat, a reactionary, a cleric, a military man or a Cien- 
tifico, but simply a civilized being, had the natural and pa- 
triotic right to range himself, even at the cost of displeasing 
the President of the United States, against the social catas- 
trophe that threatened Mexico. This catastrophe did not 
mean simply the collapse of a wretched murderer, a rotten 
bureaucracy, an ignoble past, a government, ancient laws, 
and legitimate social interests, but the collapse of Mexican 
civilization itself, dating from the days of the Toltecs down 
to those of Porfirio Diaz. 

Such was the prospect held out to Mexican society in 
191 1 after the taking of Sombrerete by Moya, Torreon by 
Adame Macias, Cuautla by Zapata, the Fabrica de Cova- 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 259 

donga by Zamudio, and the perpetration of other excesses 
throughout the Republic. The fact remains that all revolu- 
tions launched with undisciplined troops, in the name of 
the people, or under any other pretext, have been accom- 
panied by these savage excesses. What terrorized Mexican 
society, however, was the fact that this savagery had been 
converted into a doctrine of retributive justice, which pro- 
posed to make the extermination of the higher classes, the 
starting point of the new era of happiness for the popular 
classes. 

It is not necessary to enter here into a discussion as to 
whether or not the popular classes had reason to meditate a 
vengeance that would be epoch-making even in the annals 
of the most celebrated reigns of terror. But what I shall 
sustain, and I think justly, is that neither Mr. Wilson nor 
any other person can deny the right of defense against 
extermination to one or various social classes. The right 
of defense has not emanated from the temple of the gods, 
from imposing capitols, from councils illuminated from on 
high, from universities or law courts, or from the sovereign 
will of the people. The right of defense springs from the 
organic world, that is to say, from everything that has life. 
This right to existence is sacred to all beings, from the 
smallest insect that flies in the air to the wild beasts that 
inhabit the forests; from the tiniest plant cell to the mighty 
tree, which challenges time and commands the veneration of 
generations. 

To deny the right of defense to any class of society is 
absurd. The Mexican conservative classes were quite right 
in sanctioning Huerta's triumph, notwithstanding the mur- 
ders that attended it, if they believed that Huerta was ca- 
pable of saving the country. The world has approved the 
cowardly assassination of Holofernes by Judith, because by 
this means she saved her country. History has set the seal 
of its approval upon the reign of the Emperor Augustus, 



26o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

who put an end to the anarchy that was devastating Rome, 
notwithstanding the fact that in order to reach the supreme 
power he committed more crimes than Huerta. Christian- 
ity has glorified the Emperor Constantine, who was far more 
criminal than Huerta ever thought of being, France re- 
spects the memory of Louis XI as the founder of the great 
French nation, notwithstanding the fact that as an assassin 
he could have given lessons to Huerta. England reveres 
the memory of Cromwell as one of the foundation stones 
of her greatness, despite his cruelty. The world has 
accepted Napoleon's despotic rule, which put an end to 
Jacobin anarchy, as a force beneficial to humanity, although 
he decreed the death of the Due d'Enghien. The Mexican 
people at one time recognized that they were greatly in- 
debted to General Diaz, and that it was their duty to sup- 
port him, despite the fact that he had decreed the horrible 
assassinations of June 25, 1879, at Vera Cruz, by means of 
the famous telegram directed to General Mier y Teran: 
"Strike while the iron is hot." 

I do not think the assassination of Madero and Pino Sua- 
rez was a necessity, but even granting that it was a wanton 
act of cruelty, if society, threatened with extermination by 
the populace, believed that the only man capable of saving 
it was General Huerta, it had the right to rely upon the 
sword of this terrible soldier, just as a shipwrecked man, 
lashed about by the waves, would not hesitate to grasp the 
first arm that was stretched out to rescue him even if it 
were that of the most criminal man in the world. It is the 
work of anarchy to convert even miscreants into heroes, if 
they succeed in dominating it. 

Once Mr. Wilson had decided to destroy Huerta, having 
first brought the tremendous moral power of the United 
States to bear upon the situation, he took his "moral ho- 
witzer," loaded it with the corresponding moral projectile — 
non-recognition of Huerta — and sat down to await with the 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 261 

utmost unconcern the wave of fear that would sweep over 
the Mexican Government and the Mexican people, bringing 
about the downfall of Huerta, and removing the cause of 
displeasure to the honorable President of the United States. 



THE PLAN OF IMPLACABLE REVENGE 

The Plan of Guadalupe, which may aptly be styled "The 
Fiasco," because it utterly failed of its purpose, was pro- 
claimed by Senor Carranza on March 19, 1913. The state 
of Sonora did not follow Carranza at this time. On the 
20th of the preceding month, it had on its own initiative, 
and assuming all risks, refused allegiance to Huerta. Senor 
Carranza carried a portion of the Coahuila state troops 
with him and some of his employees, and managed to raise 
about three hundred men. They were soon defeated, reduc- 
ing the Carrancista force to one hundred fugitives, who 
would have surrendered except for the omnipotent Mr. 
Wilson's menacing attitude. 

The reply to Senor Carranza's appeal to the state govern- 
ors was the meek attitude of these practical politicians who, 
with two or three exceptions, were determined to submit to 
Huerta's despotism, however oppressive it might be. It took 
the Federal Congress only eleven minutes to transform itself 
from a loyal Maderista to a still more loyal Huertista body. 
In the House of Representatives, which was supposed to be 
the genuine representative of the people, infamy touched its 
lowest depths when not a single representative of the Ma- 
derista majority questioned the Executive regarding the crime 
committed at dawn of that same day, when their brother 
deputy, Senor Gustavo Madero, the President's brother and 
the leader of the majority, had been infamously assassinated 
by the triumphant representatives of militarism. The plan 
to establish militarism was agreed upon at the American Em- 
bassy, the conference being presided over and influenced by 



262 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Mr. Henry Lane Wilson. With the exception of five, the 
cowardly majority came forward to sanction Madero's fall 
and to endeavor with inimitable ignominy to whitewash 
Huerta, putting a semblance of legality upon his title of Con- 
stitutional President ad interim of the Mexican Republic. 
After the sensational murders of Madero, Pino Suarez and 
Abraham Gonzalez, which filled the civilized and even the 
semi-civilized world with horror, this majority — the cream 
of the new men the nation so much needed — put itself un- 
conditionally at Huerta's disposal. These men came and 
went in Huerta's ante-chambers, asked for orders and re- 
ceived commands, and were not above receiving gratuities, 
thereby adding to their depravity. It was owing to them 
that the tyrant was able to have laws passed conveying his 
sovereign will, and to get support for the interminable 
intrigues that were suggested to him, which have placed him 
in the foreranks of the worst Roman Caesars, Italian con- 
dottieres and Latin-American liberators. But no sooner did 
Villa take Torreon in September, 1913, and the revolution 
in the north began to take on the appearance of an inevitable 
triumph, than this sordid majority thought the time had come 
to betray Huerta, as it had betrayed Madero, in order to 
curry favor with the offended leaders — Villa and Carranza 
— and by a second treason wipe out the first. 

This despicable ex-Maderista majority then assumed an 
independent attitude, that is, anti-Huertista. This did not 
meet with the tyrant's approval, and he ordered the dissolu- 
tion of the obnoxious body. This had suddenly been trans- 
formed into a righteously and patriotically indignant as- 
semblage, demanding satisfaction for the assassination of 
Senator Belisario Dominquez, after not having dared to raise 
its voice in protest against a succession of assassinations : Ma- 
dero, his brother Gustavo, Pino Suarez, Abraham Gonzalez, 
the representatives Pastolin, Serafiio Rendon, Federico 
Gurrion, and the journalist Solon Argiiello, and many other 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 263 

persons who were deserving only of consideration and 
respect for asserting their political rights. 

The situation for Carranza was serious from the mo- 
ment that the political parties, as well as the factions, had 
their leading men in the Cabinet and the two houses of Con- 
gress. It is safe to say that with the treason of the Fed- 
eral Congress, the Judiciary, the Supreme Court and the 
governors of twenty-three states, all the Maderista follow- 
ing had gone over to Huerta, and that when Carranza pro- 
claimed the reestablishment of the Constitution he did it 
without other support than that of a few insignificant, irregu- 
lar military men, and without other civil head than his own, 
and that of the prudent although inexperienced Senor Eliseo 
Arredondo. 

The failure of President Wilson's moral projectile to make 
even a dent in the moral armor plate of Mexican sovereignty 
served to emphasize the significance of the failure of Con- 
stitutionalism, labelling it as a ridiculous political measure, 
disparaging to the moral supremacy of the United States In 
the eyes of the Mexican public. 

Desperation Inspired Senor Carranza to appeal to a 
remedy as stupid as It was unworthy of a politician, and es- 
pecially of a Mexican. He revived the law of January 20, 
1862, which had been publicly repudiated In New York In 
1864 by its author, Senor Manuel Doblado. He then said 
that it was a dishonor to him and that he had compiled It 
In a state of mind bordering on mental derangement, brought 
on by the increasing number of treasons and desertions In 
the Mexican army as the French advanced upon Puebla. 

To form some Idea of the cruelty and injustice of this law 
It is only necessary to consider that, notwithstanding the 
fact that it was promulgated to punish the black crime of 
treason, Its author confessed that he had exceeded his pro- 
gram, not in justice, because he himself never thought the 
law just, but In terror, which he thought necessary to Instill 



264 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

into the minds of the people at a time when Mexico seemed 
to be crumbling to pieces through panic and treason. 

Where was the political acumen of the Carrancista party 
in April, 1913, when it decided to revive a law which was 
morally discountenanced, and w^hich had been condemned 
without appeal and without exception in the nation's his- 
tory? There has never been a liberal, patriotic Mexican 
historian who has not condemned this law even when ap- 
plied to traitors. Where, then, was the political acumen of 
these men who decided to apply, in a civil constitutionalist 
war, penal precepts applicable only to traitors! 

When the Catholic League, presided over by the Due de 
Guise, decreed the massacre of the Huguenots on the mem- 
orable Eve of Saint Bartholomew, the assassins followed 
the moral and logical law of the times — the heretic must die 
by fire and the sword. Guise and Torquemada, following 
the political tenets of their age, are respectable in compari- 
son with Carranza who, in the twentieth century, unfurls 
the banner of Constitutionalism under the protection of a 
law that would drag every Mexican citizen who does not 
agree with him to the block. 

The Constitutionalism proclaimed by the Plan de Guada- 
lupe was the establishment of democracy, that is, the sov- 
ereignty of the people. If the people are sovereign, how is 
it possible for a citizen to say to them: "Either you will 
follow me or I shall kill you, confiscating all your property 
to swell my own possessions." The people have the inherent 
right to rebel and, consequently, an equal right not to do 
so. A democratic republic cannot harbor a citizen, even 
though he be named Venustiano Carranza, endowed with 
the right to compel a people to rebel. Not only did Sefior 
Carranza not have the right to threaten the people, whom 
he professed to look upon as sovereign, but he did not have 
the right to threaten the most humble citizen of the Repub- 
lic. Even the people do not possess this right. The right 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 265 

not to rebel, even if the Government violates the Constitu- 
tion a million times, is a sacred, personal right. 

Seiior Carranza and his limited circle never could under- 
stand that a Huertista could be a legitimate Constitution- 
alist. In point of fact, according to the Constitution pro- 
claimed by Carranza and his picayune followers, the House 
of Representatives enjoys the privilege of legal infallibility, 
there being no appeal from the designation by this body of 
any special person as President of the Republic, and it was 
this very body that had declared Huerta the Constitutional 
President of the Republic ad interim. 

It is true that the action of the House of Representatives 
in this respect was detestable, worthy of contempt and exe- 
cration. But for the Constitution there are no corrupt 
legislatures; legally their actions are clean and sound, what- 
ever they may be. The House of Representatives, like all 
constitutional power, is absolutely irresponsible before the 
law, whatever may be the laws, decrees or agreements it may 
formulate. The representatives are responsible before the 
House for official offenses, but they are absolutely irrespon- 
sible according to the Constitution for whatever they may 
say on the floor of the House, and for their votes, whatever 
their import may be. 

If a legislature prostitutes its sacred rights and legislates 
according to its perverted instincts, the people have the right 
to rebel against it, or, as I have said, not to rebel if they 
see fit. In any case the Mexican citizen is not obliged to 
rebel even if the entire populace has risen in rebellion. 
Senor Carranza's assumed right to oblige all Mexicans to 
• follow him is nothing short of absurd in the eyes of hon- 
est, intelligent persons. Even supposing that Huerta had 
not represented a de jure government, no one can deny that 
in March, 19 13, he represented a de facto government, 
inasmuch as he ruled a nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants, with 
the exception of perhaps 400,000. Every individual is obliged 



266 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

to recognize a de facto government. If he does not care to 
fulfill this obligation he is at liberty to rebel, running the 
risk of being punished according to the laws of this 
government. If de facto governments had not the right 
to punish infringements of their law^s, there never would 
have been any Latin-American governments, because they 
are nothing but de facto governments from the moment 
that they originate from military coups or official elections. 

Mr. Fyfe is a good observer and perceives with unerring 
eye how scandalously the Mexicans abuse the term treason: 
"Each side calls the other side 'traitors,' and the only course 
to take with a 'traitor' — that is, a man who differs from 
your views — is to shoot him." ^ 

In an interview between Mr. Fyfe and Senor Carranza 
the following conversation took place: 

" 'We Constitutionalists refuse to recognize any president 
who may be returned at the fraudulent election. We shall 
execute anybody who does recognize him.' 

" 'I beg your pardon,' I said. 'Would you kindly repeat 
your last statement? I thought I must have misunder- 
stood it.' 

" 'We shall,' the General said calmly and as if he were 
making a perfectly natural remark, 'execute any one who 
recognizes a president unconstitutionally elected and directly 
or indirectly guilty of participation in the murder of Ma- 
dero.' " 2 

Fyfe adds: "Some two months after my visit, General 
Carranza was interviewed by a Major Archer-Shee, a Brit- 
ish Member of Parliament, and being told that this remark 
of his had had a bad effect, he denied having made it. I 
bear him no malice for this. I expected that he would deny 
it, if ever he were told how strangely it sounded in English 
and American ears." ^ 

1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. i8. 

2 Idem, p. 17. 

3 Idem, p. 17. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 267 

How advantageous it would have been if Senor Carranza 
had looked upon Mexican society with the same respect he 
looked upon the English Parliamentary member, Major 
Archer-Shee, so that he might have repealed a law, the in- 
voking of which was a discredit to him, and will forever 
remain a stain upon the civilization of Mexico. 

Senor Fernandez Giiell generously contributes to our 
sociology a sample of our abominable mental political atti- 
tude. Senor Carranza's decree reviving the horrible law of 
January 20, 1862, proves that the First Chief of the Con- 
stitutionalist army has been liberty's worst enemy in Mexico. 
Nevertheless, Senor Fernandez Giiell calls Senor Carranza 
"the old and robust oak of liberty." When an ex-director 
of the National Library of the City of Mexico confuses ter- 
ror with liberty, it means that the Mexican nation is lost in 
the hands of reformers who do not pretend to restore lib- 
erty, but to introduce the barbarities that characterized the 
most atrocious period of the Roman Empire. Senor Fer- 
nandez Giiell is much more felicitous when he announces to 
the world that Seiior Carranza shed "una lagrima de bronce" 
(a molten tear) upon Madero's grave. It is fitting that a 
man who revived a law of terror should be converted, when 
he melts into tears, into a munition factory. 

THE FALSE APOSTLE 

The most plausible exposition I have come across of Senor 
Carranza's dominant reform idea is to be found in Mr. 
Fyfe's book. Speaking to the correspondent of The London 
Times, Mr. Fyfe said, referring to the revolution: "It has 
its roots in social causes. The land, which was formerly 
divided among the mass of the people, has been seized by a 
few. The owners of it compel those who are working for 
them to buy the necessities of life from them alone. They 
lay a burden of debt upon the poor people, and as they owe 



268 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

them money they cannot get away. If they try to go away, 
they can be brought back. They can be put in prison." ^ 

This explanation, however, is untenable. 

Senor Carranza did not emerge from a Mexican Bastile 
where he had been incarcerated for forty years on account 
of his reform ideas. Senor Carranza was for many years a 
senator in the Federal Congress under the Diaz dictator- 
ship, and could have introduced a reform bill embracing the 
land question, the company stores and the abuses practised 
by landowners and proprietors against debtors, especially as 
the Constitution forbids any manner of punishment for debt. 
Senor Carranza's bill might or might not have been taken 
up for consideration by the dictatorship. In all probability 
it would have been well received, considering what I have 
already said about the recommendations Senor Carlos 
Pacheco had made, through the Department of Fomento, to 
the President, advising the formation of small landholdings. 
I have also called attention to the fact that the law of 1886 
advised the division of the land to raise the standard of agri- 
culture, and thus institute a radical means to combat the 
effects of the depreciation of silver. In my book. El por- 
venir de las naciones latino-americanas ante la politica de 
los Est ados Unidos (The Future of the American Nations 
in View of the Policy of the United States), published in 
1899, I proved that Mexico would never attain permanent 
prosperity without the establishment of small landholdings, 
and that to accomplish this the Government should proceed 
at once to construct large irrigation plants. After the pub- 
lication of my book, the Department of Fomento published 
treatises on the subject, insisting that irrigation was necessary 
to make possible the distribution of the land without bring- 
ing about a disaster — the death of the people by starvation. 
During the dictatorship, Senor Carranza, the reformer, was 
either not a reformer or an absolutely inactive one. 

1 Hamilton Fyfe, The Real Mexico, p. 16. 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 269 

Senor Carranza took possession of the government of the 
state of Coahuila in June, 191 1, and kept it until March 
I9> 1913- According to the Constitution, the states have 
the right to introduce constitutional reform bills into the 
Federal Congress. Why did not Senor Carranza during the 
period of his governorship introduce bills through the state 
legislature to be laid before the Federal Congress, outlining 
the reforms needed to save the country? Why did not the 
senators and representatives from Coahuila, if they really 
professed reform principles, avail themselves of the privilege 
granted them by the Constitution of introducing into Con- 
gress any bill they might see fit to bring about reforms? 
Why did the Carrancista press in the state of Coahuila 
never take up these questions of reform vi^hen it v^^as per- 
fectly free to do so? Why did not the journalist, Senor 
Ignacio Herrerias, to whom Don Venustiano Carranza paid 
two hundred pesos monthly to eulogize him in the City of 
Mexico newspapers, ever open the reform campaign in the 
columns of La Prensa^ where I had installed him as editor- 
in-chief ? 

Emiliano Zapata issued the Plan de Ayala on November 
25, 191 1. This embodied the distribution of lands and the 
waging of war against the landowning system, with the hope 
of arousing popular feeling, not only in Morelos but all 
over the country. He has upheld his plan for more than 
four years by fire and blood, resisting the blandishments of 
three administrations. Why did not Don Venustiano Car- 
ranza, the governor of Coahuila, who professed the same 
reform principles, join forces with him and oblige Madero 
to grant the saving reforms demanded by the popular class? 

It is shocking that the great reformer, Don Venustiano 
Carranza, a state governor, one of the most prominent mem- 
bers of the Maderista faction, who possessed the right and 
influence to make himself heard, and who was bound to speak 
from the moment that Zapata issued his proclamation — at 



270 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the time when his influence would have been decisive, with- 
out shedding a drop of blood, without sacrificing a dollar, 
without the slightest resistance from the landowner — should 
have remained as indifferent to the agrarian question as 
though the subject under discussion were some regulation 
concerning the seal fisheries in Greenland. But no sooner 
was he deprived of his governorship by Huerta's triumph, 
than he set to work to organize a tremendous civil war in 
order to establish reforms he might have obtained during 
Madero's administration if he had been a real and disinter- 
ested reformer. 

The question has a still graver aspect. I have spoken of 
the bill presented to Congress in President Huerta's name 
in March, 191 3, by Senor Toribio Esquivel Obregon, ask- 
ing it to authorize the appropriation of several million pesos 
to buy lands from the planters, to be divided at the Govern- 
ment's expense among the poor. From the moment of the 
introduction of this bill it was Senor Carranza's place, if 
patriotism alone influenced him, to have notified Huerta 
that he would remain under arms until the law he had in- 
troduced in favor of the poor had been approved. But as 
Senor Carranza was as much interested in reforms as he was 
in the whereabouts of the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter, 
he enkindled instead the most atrocious civil war that Amer- 
ica has ever known. The real principle involved was the 
"Step down, that I may step up" principle, of which I have 
already spoken. President Wilson did not seem able to see 
that the agrarian question could not possibly be the funda- 
mental cause of the war, as both Huerta and Carranza had 
included the distribution of the lands as part of their pro- 
grams, but that the real motive was Huerta's desire to con- 
tinue as dictator, and Carranza's to attain the dictatorship. 
In Mexico, even among people of the most ordinary intelli- 
gence, it is well known that the social question has never been 
the true political motive underlying the revolution. It has 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 271 

been used as a cloak for the ambition of two men who have 
deluged Mexico with blood : Huerta, at the head of soldiery ; 
Carranza, at the head of the demagogues. 



THE TRUE ANTI-SOCIAL FORCES OF THE REVOLUTION 

Sefior Carranza's law of terror failed completely. Seeing 
himself without the support of any of the men of prestige, 
the First Chief had recourse to the most influential man out- 
side the former Madero faction, Dr. Francisco Vasquez Go- 
mez. Dr. Vasquez Gomez replied in a letter published in 
the United States on June 6, 1913, that he could not sup- 
port the Plan de Guadalupe because he was a man of fixed 
principles and not inclined to support personal causes, as the 
one he had proclaimed under the misnomer of Plan de Gua- 
dalupe unquestionably was. 

The revolution was composed of three elements: The de- 
termination of the state of Sonora, or rather of the men who 
had lately obtained the headway there, to preserve its sov- 
ereignty and independence at any cost; the Villa faction, 
which represented the Madero family and which sought, 
with President Wilson's support, to restore it to power; and 
Senor Don Venustiano Carranza, loyal and incorruptible 
partisan of the interests and ambitions of Senor Don Car- 
ranza Venustiano. 

The proceedings of these three factions, all of them an- 
tagonistic to the only one having real principles — that of 
Zapata — were ignoble, anti-social and consequently un- 
patriotic. Demagogism, with its deformed and poisoned 
mentality, charged itself with the mission of interpreting the 
real principles of the revolution. 

It is well known that the ruling passion of barbarous 
peoples is hate. When these peoples fight for religion, they 
are dominated by hatred of the heretic. When they fight 



272 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

for liberty, they are impelled by hatred of those who govern 
them. When they fight for their country, they are urged by 
hatred of the alien. When they fight for the welfare of the 
disinherited, they are really impelled by hatred of the rich. 
When they fight for socialism, they are violently incited by 
the social, economic, intellectual, physical and moral in- 
equalities they see about them. Hatred is the propelling 
force of the barbarian soul. The revolutionists of 1913, be- 
ing the product of the demagogic schools, knew well what 
course to pursue, and they proceeded to spread their propa- 
ganda of hatred among the people. 

As we already know, the Cientificos no longer existed in 
19 1 3. Of the rich men who formed the political group 
upon whom responsibility might fall — political, never crim- 
inal, however — only four remained. All were past fifty 
years of age, rich, enjoying a high social position, of pacific 
tendencies and surrounded by an impregnable wall of skep- 
ticism, capable of withstanding the fire of human or super- 
human batteries of ambition. The demagogues had devoted 
eight years to a campaign of vilification against these men, 
creating against them in the minds of the people a hatred 
verging on the infernal. The opportunity was not to be lost. 
Before these fires of hate became extinct it was necessary to 
impress upon the minds of the people, upon that of President 
Wilson, the American people and the whole world, that this 
formidable Cientifico party existed in Mexico, bent upon ex- 
ploiting the unfortunate Mexican people — already in the 
lowest state of misery by exploitation — to the point of com- 
plete extermination. 

It will be remembered that the agitators, wishing to cast 
as much odium as possible upon General Diaz's administra- 
tion, had stirred up the Boxer feeling among the people. But 
as Mr. Wilson, the protector of the revolution, was the 
President of the Americans it was better, as Orestes Pereira 
explained at Durango in July, 19 13, to leave the gringos (a 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 273 

name given to Americans) alone for the time being and turn 
their attention to the destruction of the English, the Chinese, 
and above all the Spaniards, commonly known as gachupines. 

The creation of this fictitious party had its advantages, as 
all that vi^as necessary was to class every one as rich Cien- 
tificos or as sympathizers of the Cientificos to be able to rob 
them unmolested, making President Wilson, the American 
people and the Spanish-American Republics, believe that 
they, the representatives of the revolution, were punishing a 
band of iniquitous politicians who justly deserved it. These 
men had robbed the virtuous Mexican people of all their 
wealth, and justice demanded that all their ill-gotten goods 
should be taken from them and restored to the people. There 
can be no doubt that this artful manoeuvre on the part of a 
set of ruffians produced a tremendous effect in the United 
States, and caused a particular smile of self-satisfaction to 
light up Mr. Wilson's puritanical countenance. 

Notwithstanding religious dogmas, altruistic doctrines, the 
enchanting, romantic spirit of charity, and the cross currents 
of many interests, it is undeniable that up to the present day 
the white race is a privileged race. I do not know, nor do I 
seek to know, when or how the prestige of the Caucasian 
race will be destroyed. It will not be an easy task, as it is 
artistic, and more or less heir to classic Hellenistic aspira- 
tions. The world is not yet sufficiently virtuous or ascetic 
to give the same place in the social scale to the black, com- 
pelled as yet to be satisfied simply with equal civil rights, as 
to the fair white representative of Athenian graces. 

Beauty is the creator of rights, perhaps immutable, the 
creator of that state of depression felt by colored races, 
which gives rise to a sentiment of the most refined odium. 
This bursts into flame whenever it meets with sufficient re- 
sistence to ignite it, and is a powerful lever in fomenting and 
developing revolutions in countries inhabited by the privi- 
leged white race and by a race, humbled because of its color. 



274 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The Mexican revolutionists made the most of this great 
force, holding up to the natives the iniquity of the whites, 
who had exploited them for four hundred years. 

When the Mexican Constitutent Congress discussed the 
Federal electoral law in 1856, Senor Ignacio Ramirez, an 
implacable reformer and a talented, high-minded politician, 
impugned the indirect electoral system, basing his objection 
upon the fact that there is no real vote of the people except 
when the election is direct, and that all really free countries 
had recognized this fact in their electoral laws. The com- 
mission which sustained the opposite opinion frankly replied 
that the indirect election was necessary, because if the direct; 
vote were granted to the people, it would be the parish 
priests, the chapters, the bishops, and the guardians and 
priors of convents who would name the representatives, sen- 
ators, magistrates, aldermen and the president of the Repub- 
lic, and that the granting of the direct vote to the illiterate, 
fanatically Catholic people, would be signing the death war- 
rant of the glorious democratic revolution proclaimed at 
Ayutla, Senor Ramirez replied that democracies cannot be 
farces; that all governments based upon the opposition's 
plan were either corrupt or t5Tannical, or both; that if the 
Mexican people were not fitted for democracy, a Constitu- 
tion adapted to their capabilities should be drafted ; and that 
if the direct vote were not granted to the people nothing but 
a fraud would result from the indirect vote, leaving the 
people condemned to the rule of political charlatans, because 
any one guilty of such a fraud could not be anything but a 
knave. 

The delegates decided in favor of the indirect vote, ex- 
cusing themselves by saying that it was better to educate the 
people in democratic principles from the start, and that In 
no wise could this be better accomplished than by the in- 
direct electoral vote. 

Senor Ramirez's prophecy was verified. When the Ma- 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 275 

dero revolution triumphed, all honest persons who believed 
in good faith that the Mexican people vi^ere now ready for 
democracy, resolved that the direct vote should triumph. 
The demagogic corporation, knowing that the masses, cut 
loose from the influence of the clergy, can be molded to 
their views — as happens everywhere when the voter is un- 
worthy of the vote — energetically supported the reform 
of the electoral law, aiming at having the elections of 
191 2 carried out in conformity with the strict rules of 
the direct popular vote. The result was a surprise to 
honest liberals and to the demagogic herd. They believed 
that after forty-nine years of an anti-Catholic policy, an 
atheistic press, and obligatory lay schools, the popular masses 
had been almost totally emancipated from the tutelage of the 
clergy. The elections of 19 12 proved that the clergy pos- 
sessed the power to organize a real, disciplined political 
party, and to carry the Federal and local elections in almost 
all the states. If the Catholics did not have a complete tri- 
umph in the elections of 19 12, it was owing to pressure 
brought to bear by the Maderista Government, and the 
frauds practised by the Porra against the Catholics. The 
situation was clear to all. 

In order to make democracy with the free vote possible 
in Mexico, it is necessary for the Catholics to be a perma- 
nent political factor because they are in the majority and 
are strong enough to organize legislative bodies, and to pre- 
vent any other powerful, well-disciplined political body from 
obtaining a complete triumph in the parliamentary field. 
What the Mexican Catholics lack is the power to rise up 
in arms and assert their rights when the liberal minority 
nullifies their honestly won triumphs by means of frauds and 
violence. This lack of assertive power is due to the fact 
that the Indians and mestizos of the rural districts, who 
vote with the Catholic party, do not go to the polls pistol 
in hand as their opponents are ready to do. Owing to that 



276 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

stony passivity, of which I have already spoken, they will 
vote for or against Catholicism, just as they will fight for 
or against it, if superior authority brings pressure to bear 
upon them. 

The politicians know that they cannot be the controlling 
power in a real, or even in a corrupt democracy, so long as 
the majority of the Mexicans are Catholics, and this explains 
their anxiety to destroy Catholicity among the popular 
classes by any and every possible means. As the lay schools 
did not accomplish this, the revolutionists have had recourse 
to another species of anti-Catholic education of the masses 
carried on by desecrating churches, breaking images, outrag- 
ing nuns, expelling and assassinating priests, closing churches, 
and even by prohibiting private worship. From this also 
springs the cry for more lay schools. To the reformer "re- 
generation of the people by the school" means getting con- 
trol of the conscience of the popular class by driving Catho- 
licity out. 

This accounts for the hatred of the political revolutionists 
for Catholicism, and their care to encourage the bandits of 
the north to commit all kinds of outrages against the clergy 
and the Catholics in that section. 

Having organized this campaign of hate, not against 
Huerta — because he was an old man and by that time utterly 
devoid of social prestige — but against other menacing forces, 
the agitators proceeded to stir the populace through another 
channel. 

If the Plan de Guadalupe had made the distribution of 
lands its watchword, it would have been coldly received in 
the north, where something more enticing had to be held out. 

Any vague, undefined, mysterious promise is a great mo- 
tive force among illiterate, practically uncivilized peoples, 
composed in great majority of inferior races, and the Mex- 
ican people were virtually hypnotized with high-sounding 
promises. "This revolution is being fought for the poor." 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 277 

"Once the revolution triumphs the poor will never know suf- 
fering again." "The reforms which the revolution is secretly 
planning will lead the poor to unlimited prosperity." "The 
revolution must necessarily be the source of unbounded ben- 
efits for the poor." "The world will be amazed to see the 
reforms that the Mexican revolution will institute exclu- 
sively in favor of the poor." "The poor the world over will 
envy the poor in Mexico, when the revolution is crowned 
with triumph." This string of absurdities produced magic 
effects in the mind of the populace. They hailed with joy 
the destruction of their country, of the restricted liberties 
which up to then they had enjoyed, of their meagre posses- 
sions, of their work, of the virtue of their wives and daught- 
ers, and of all the traditions that tempered the sordiness of 
their lives and cast a halo of tenderness over their homes, 
notwithstanding their poverty and misery. 



THE CRIMINAL BAND OF PRIVATE SECRETARIES 

The revolution never formulated its program by means of 
a logical, well-drawn-up document, characterized by serious 
political purpose. Senor Carranza has not been the "mili- 
tary genius" of the revolution, its thinker or its reformer; 
neither has he been the instigator of the revolutionary propa- 
ganda I mentioned. He has not grasped it even now, 
and never will. Senor Carranza has never seen any of the 
powerful machines, expelling the foul gases of hatred and 
cupidity, designed by the revolutionists. Never has he put 
foot in this "garage" to ride forth into chaos at the rate of 
one hundred miles an hour in one of these high-powered 
machines. For Senor Carranza, as for Mr. Wilson and Mr. 
Bryan and Messrs. Bayard Hale, Lind and House, all the 
outrages committed by the revolutionists are trifles, pecca- 
dillos, excusable excesses; even criminal actions are urgent 



278 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

and indispensable, and the inevitable consequences of war. 
These gentlemen do not seem to see that in previous Mex- 
ican revolutions, as in all other revolutions, the outrages 
have been the work of the lower elements, condemned by the 
higher as excesses worthy of punishment; whereas the fright- 
ful thing about the present revolution is that these crimes 
have been raised to the standard of a dogma. Unlawful trans- 
gressions have become a principle; the violation of women, a 
right; the martyrdom of the innocent, a punishment; the 
spoliation of the peaceful proprietor, the vindication of the 
people ; the massacre of the foreigners, undue excitement, pro- 
vided, always, they are not Americans; and the enrichment 
of the chiefs by public and private theft, is nothing, and 
should not be considered as anything but the reward of their 
eminent services in having given freedom to the people. 

The real revolutionary program is anonj^mous. It has 
been composed by the rabble, not the low, street rabble, but 
the proletarian, educated rabble, vicious, cowardly, envious, 
dishonest, and debauched. This rabble is composed of 
shyster lawyers, penniless students, with outstanding debts 
at all the saloons and cheap eating-houses; unkempt petti- 
foggers, with a summons out against them for swindling and 
forgery; mediocre, provincial journalists; discredited Mexican 
Masons, looking for bread and loot; Mexican Protestant 
ministers, well versed in the Bible of vice; school teachers, 
the product of the Normal School, glutted with envy and 
rancor; in short, of all that invidious, lettered horde which 
General Porfirio Diaz, instead of smothering or scattering, 
protected, strengthened and raised up to the point of becom- 
ing a menace to him, and which he allowed General Keyt^ 
to snatch from him at the end to help further the ambitions 
of the ever-active governor of Nuevo Leon. 

I desire to state that I am referring only to those who 
acted in the capacity of private secretaries to leading bandits, 
because among the private secretaries of the rude, honest guer- 



PRESIDENT WILSON AND CARRANZA 279 

rilleros (leaders of guerrilla bands) or of insignificant ban- 
dits, there have been and still are private secretaries who can 
lay claim to some merit, and who have prevented, so far as 
was possible, unjust persecutions, flagrant abuses and the 
submersion of civilization. 

The "private secretary" becomes the bandit's monitor. He 
introduces him to the gay life of the city, the latest cocktail, 
orgies a la mode, and intrigues with the demi-mondaines of 
the stage. He initiates him into the mysteries of the social 
question; of political spoliation; of the landowning system; 
of confiscation of the Cientificos' property, for his own bene- 
fit, not that of the people; of assassination, premediated or 
unpremediated, personally or through an agent; of the re- 
ligious question; of the pornographic question; of the neces- 
sity of regenerating the people by means of the school; of 
assassination, in the name of liberty, of all those who are par- 
tisans of the Cientificos. He fosters his ambition to the 
point of making him aspire to a governorship or to the presi- 
dency itself. He explains to him how theft may be success- 
fully carried on by means of force, forgery, falsified inven- 
tories, violence and kidnapping. He steals from him when 
he is asleep or intoxicated, and transforms himself into his 
treasurer, his administrator, his counsellor, his tutor, and 
into any species of thing that gives him an opportunity to ex- 
ploit his uncouth master with veritable Hebraic cupidity. 
The private secretary is the evil genius of the bandit. He 
is cowardly, vicious and criminal, and infects with his very 
presence. The bandit may be brave, generous, a diamond in 
the rough, a rude creature with a great heart, the potential- 
ities of a patriot, the germ of a real reformer, a savage sus- 
ceptible of mental development. The private secretary de- 
stroys every particle of natural goodness there may be in him, 
as his dismal role is to extinguish the real light of liberty, to 
throw the mantle of chaos over his country, burrowing into 
her heart like an invisible worm. By dint of catering to his 



28o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

basest passions the private secretary becomes the bandit's 
absolute master. 

I have said that in countries where the supreme power has 
been won by force, the peace that follows is a degradation. 
When those who triumph are the bandits of the popular and 
sub-popular classes, the masters of their victories are the pri- 
vate secretaries, and, consequently, they are the true masters 
of the situation — masters of Senor Don Venustiano Car- 
ranza, masters of President Wilson's will, of Mr. Bryan's 
conscience and of the impressions of the American public 
with regard to Mexico's savage drama. 



CHAPTER III 

THE COLLAPSE OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S 
MEXICAN POLICY 

THE GREAT PLAN TO REDEEM THE EIGHTY-FIVE PER CENT 

IN virtue of the august Monroe Doctrine the United 
States Government figures in the role of the all-pow- 
erful proxy of the European Governments, with 
faculties to act in questions relating to Latin-American na- 
tions, questions that might even involve the respective nations 
in war. Never has a loyal proxy been known to protect 
those who have threatened the lives and interests of his con- 
stituents; nevertheless, Mr. Wilson has protected the Mexi- 
can bandits, who have openly and shamelessly attacked 
foreigners, especially Spaniards. Never has a civilized man 
been known to countenance religious persecution in the twen- 
tieth century, and, as the Chief Executive of one of the most 
powerful nations of the world, to consent to outrages that 
wound the sensibilities of 300,000,000 Catholics, especially 
as 15,000,000 of these are citizens of the country over which 
he rules, and are deserving of more than ordinary consid- 
eration, and of not being affronted by seeing their ofHcial 
head giving aid to a set of bandits who have been guilty of 
the most revolting persecution of the Catholic Church in 
Mexico. Never has the president of a nation of 85,000,000 
whites, privileged to make felt their superiority over 12,000,- 
000 blacks, been known to encourage a caste war which 

281 



282 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

has for its object the extermination of the white race in 
another country. Never has the president of an individualis- 
tic democracy, which upholds the doctrine of the inviolabil- 
ity of private property, been known to encourage, in a nation 
bordering upon its own ' territory, the development of anti- 
social doctrines and actions which may result in serious 
damage to his own country. Never has a reputable govern- 
ment been known to avail itself of means altogether un- 
worthy of its position to prevent a government like that of 
Mexico from negotiating and placing loans in Europe, when 
a state of war did not exist between the two nations, espe- 
cially as representative Mexican society hoped by means of 
these loans to enable the government to establish peace and 
guarantee the security to which they were entitled. Never 
has a politician of the most pronounced puritanical type, 
after having pledged his honor before the world to respect 
a nation's sovereignty, been known to send a note such as 
that which President Wilson sent to the Huerta Govern- 
ment, commanding the President to suspend hostilities at 
once, to renounce the presidency, to arrange immediately for 
an election, and under no condition to enter the political 
field as a candidate. Never has a government, after 
having reached the point of applying moral force to a weaker 
nation to intimidate it, been known to decide, when the 
weaker nation rejected with dignity the affront to its sov- 
ereignty, to lower itself by offering, because it is an uncon- 
ditional pacifist, to obtain pecuniary aid for the outraged 
government if it will only yield and avoid a declaration of 
war. Mr. Fyfe says, with an ironical smile that ought to 
wound the amour propre of the President of the United 
States: "The general feeling in Mexico City, especially after 
the President's Message to Congress, in which he blandly 
ignores the United States, was, if I may adopt a metaphor 
from 'poker,' that Washington's 'bluff had been called,' and 
that it bad nothing in its hand. So far as can be seen at 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 283 

present, then, Mr. Wilson's desire 'to triumph as the friend 
of Mexico' has done good to nobody, excepting the revo- 
lutionists, whom it has encouraged. To fight for a prin- 
ciple is magnificent, but it is not politics." ^ 

When General Huerta rejected President Wilson's per- 
emptory orders, a great wave of applause swept over Mex- 
ico, Latin-America, Europe and Japan, giving Huerta a 
prestige as a ruler that he holds to this day. No one ex- 
pected that the pigmy, harassed by internal enemies, by the 
contempt of public opinion, by the gloomy looks of the ter- 
rorized community, beaten down by everything that unset- 
tles, weakens and crushes, would say to the omnipotent 
President of the United States: "I shall not obey. I shall 
abide by international law, and for the present I rely upon 
the moral power of justice." As his policy was what it was, 
peace at any price, cost what it might. President Wilson had 
received a disconcerting check. Huerta was original, ex- 
traordinary, a species without zoological classification. It 
was his undoing that he did not, defying President Wilson, 
resolve to fight, even with the certainty of assured defeat. 
Huerta was not frightened by the American army. He al- 
ways said to his ministers: "The Americans have no army 
and never will have one. They make a commercial busi- 
ness of war, and as they look with horror upon commercial 
transactions that are not paying investments, no great en- 
thusiasm can be aroused for a war against Mexico. At the 
most, Wilson will send one hundred thousand recruits 
against me, whom I shall tear to pieces with fifty thousand 
men, without having to raise the half-million men at my dis- 
posal." His ministers were never able to convince Huerta 
that the Americans could vanquish him. 

In the first diplomatic encounter between President Wil- 
son and President Huerta, the latter unquestionably won the 
victory, the American Government losing considerable moral 

1 Hamilton Fyf e, The Real Mexico, p. 137. 



284 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

prestige in the eyes of the Mexicans, the Latin-Americans 
and the whole world. President Wilson had had recourse, 
as Hamilton Fyfe says, to a political game of poker, and 
the failure of his first "bluff" did not dismay him. He tried 
a second, exceedingly prejudicial to the interests of the 
flourishing American colony which was peacefully pursuing 
its legitimate business in Mexico, enjoying the good-will of 
all. President Wilson, in order to make Huerta believe 
that he had made up his mind to impose his will by force 
of arms, issued a peremptory order to all Americans to leave 
Mexico at once, although at that time they could count upon 
the determined and efficacious protection of Huerta, who still 
controlled the greater part of the country. The Mexicans 
took for granted that President Wilson was going to declare 
war against them at once and looked upon all Americans as 
their enemies, the popular classes being especially inflamed 
against them. As Mr. Wilson had no intention whatever 
of going to war with Mexico, it was a mistake, not to call 
it by a stronger name, to sacrifice the prosperity of the 
American colony and its cordial relations with the Mexicans 
in a second "bluff" to make Huerta lay down his hand. 
Who is to indemnify the Americans for the injury done to 
their property and business, and for the loss of positions or 
work as employees? No American Government can exact 
reparation of Mexico for damages brought upon its citizens 
by their own President. This being the case, the irreparable 
losses suffered by the American colony must weigh upon the 
conscience of the honorable President of the United States. 
Consequent upon the revolutionists' determination to make 
the wholesale pillage of the nation and the confiscation of 
immovable property of all kinds the practical, fundamental 
principle of the revolution, designating any one who had any- 
thing to steal a Cientifico, the country was divided politically 
into Cientificos and bandits, although this had never been 
Senor Carranza's intention. He had often declared that he 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 285 

was resolved that his revolution should have a moral effect 
first and an economic one afterwards, a high principle that 
has been realized by the free play of all kinds of crime. It 
looks as though the morality of this revolution will be evi- 
dent when the last revolutionist — and perhaps also the last 
Mexican — shall have ceased to exist. 

This program of pillage and loot was carried forward with 
zeal and enthusiasm. The revolutionary chiefs stole for their 
personal benefit plantations, houses, mines, railroads, cattle, 
shops of all kinds, jewelry, furniture, art objects, relics from 
museums and libraries, the paraphernalia of laboratories — 
in a word, everything that had a commercial value. But as 
there was no market in Mexico for valuables of any kind, 
chiefly because the purchaser of any articles of value was 
liable in his turn to be the victim of the very pirate from 
whom he had bought them, a foreign market had to be 
found for all these ill-gotten goods. This was not easy to 
find, as all civilized governments adhere to a moral code 
that does not permit the establishment within their bound- 
aries of great markets for the loot of the world. He who 
knowingly buys stolen goods is a party to the theft. The 
world, therefore, has looked with amazement and disap- 
proval upon Mr. Wilson's extraordinary policy of protec- 
tion for the Mexican thieves and their American accomplices 
who have bought the loot collected in Mexico. No one ever 
dreamed that the time would come when the world would 
see a President of the United States making possible by his 
incomprehensible policy the general spoliation of a nation 
in favor of the lowest, vilest element of its population. Mr. 
Wilson, feeling that the responsibility for himself and his 
administration was too great, finally took steps to put a 
stop to the disgraceful trafficking that had overlapped the 
border into the United States, and that offended the views 
of all right-minded Ainericans. Mr. Wilson, however, did 
not institute measures to put a stop to the conversion of 



286 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

American territory into a trading ground for thieves until 
Huerta had already fallen. 

We come at last to the unwarranted invasion of Mexico 
by the American forces vi^hen, after an engagement, Vera 
Cruz was occupied. This invasion, the result of an inop- 
portune ultimatum, was a real political crime. It had no 
other object than that of protecting Villa's attack in the 
north by obliging Huerta to divert his forces to the east, and 
of preventing the German boat Ipiranga from unloading at 
Vera Cruz the arms and ammunition she was bringing over 
to Huerta. Huerta understood the move, was naturally 
irritated by it, and resolved to unite all his forces on the fron- 
tier, abandon the struggle with Villa and invade the United 
States, no matter what the consequences might be. Huerta's 
idea was to let American bayonets put the Mexican bandits 
in power, and, devoting himself to guerrilla warfare, oblige 
Mr. Wilson to put aside his masquerading and go to the 
bottom of things. When Mr. Wilson saw that events were 
not developing according to the formulas prescribed by 
Princeton University, that a cruel and implacable war be- 
tween Mexico and the United States seemed inevitable, and 
that his alliance with the Mexican bandits would be of no 
value to him, as, first and last, they would fight against him 
for their country, he had recourse to the mediation comedy 
suggested by the diplomatists of the leading South Ameri- 
can Republics: Argentine, Chile and Brazil. Mexico was 
not slow to understand the import of this move, and felt a 
sense of contempt for the Latin-American nations which 
were giving their support to the farce invented by Mr. 
Bryan. The world took note of the fact that it required 
two months to settle the insignificant Mexican question, 
when it had taken only three days to arrange the treaty of 
peace between Russia and Japan. But it was necessary to 
mark time in order to give the revolutionists an opportunity 
to annihilate Huerta. 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 287 

How can so many mistakes committed by a talented and 
intelligent man be explained? From the first, by the un- 
pardonable weakness of allowing himself to be carried away 
by the impulse of horror against Huerta as a perfidious 
assassin when there were duties of State superior, not to 
personal rights, but to exquisite sentimental impressions. 
Mr. Wilson saw through the eyes of the demagogues. He 
was obsessed by the array of lies they had woven into a 
revolutionary thesis, and saw alongside the United States 
a Mexico unlike what it actually was. In his eyes it was 
very like or identical with New Spain with its landowning 
encomenderos, its grasping merchants, its powerful clerical 
body, its despotic rulers, and with a population, depending 
upon agriculture for its living, as miserable as that of Russia 
in the middle of the eighteenth century. Mr. Wilson at 
once formulated a decidedly rococo political program to be 
applied to Mexico. It included the following propositions: 

First — To overthrow Huerta. 

Second — To maintain inviolable the unwritten principle 
of international law that no Mexican government could 
exist that did not have the approbation of the President of 
the United States. 

Third — To establish a definitive Constitutional govern- 
ment. 

Fourth — To see that this government should be of the 
free, individualistic, democratic type. 

Fifth — To put the downtrodden eighty-five per cent in 
possession of the marvellously fertile arable lands, of the 
wonderful natural pasture lands, where herds of the highest 
grade cattle could be raised, and of the virgin forests, rich 
in precious woods, suitable for cabinet-work, building and 
fuel. The country possessed all these riches in abundance 
and they were locked in the iron coffers of the cruel, tyranni- 
cal landowners, or, more correctly, in those of the Cien- 
tificos. 



288 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The "insigne doctor apostol Mr. Wilson" as the revolu- 
tionists call President Wilson, equals in determination 
the German General Staff, and, consequently, acted in true 
German fashion, calculating what it would cost — to Mexico, 
of course — to redeem it according to the Wilson system. 

The "apostolic" calculation was: 

Lives sacrificed by firearms or the dagger.... 300,000 
Lives sacrificed through small-pox and typhus, 

first count 200,000 

Lives sacrificed through other diseases of an 

unusual nature 100,000 

Lives sacrificed by starvation As many as may be necessary 

Women outraged 100,000 per day 

Americans assassinated 160 

Americans killed at Vera Cruz 17 

Massacre of all foreigners not Americans.... 

As many as may be necessary 

Expulsion of foreigners of all classes As many as possible 

Destruction of Mexican property 1,000,000,000 pesos 

Probable amount of foreign claims 1,000,000,000 " 

For the reconstruction and equipping of rail- 
roads 1 50,000,000 " 

Probable railway debt from destruction of 

roadbeds and rolling stock 150,000,000 " 

Minimum issue of paper money by the revolu- 
tionists 500,000,000 " 

Minimum issue of paper money by the banks.. 150,000,000 " 

Gold and silver coin taken out of the country. . 160,000,000 " 

Increase of the public debt 240,000,000 " 

Moral suffering of the population from two 

years of the keenest terror. . .As much as they can possibly bear 
Probable continuation of anarchy in March, 

1916 Open account 

It cannot be denied that the estimate of the cost of re- 
deeming the eighty-five per cent is rather high, and perhaps 
it would have been better, in the interests of morality, 
justice, humanity, and the credit of the United States Govern- 
ment, not to have redeemed them at this particular time, 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 289 

but to have waited for more opportune circumstances to 
have indicated the proper moment. However, if there were 
no other way of redeeming a nation of 15,000,000 inhabit- 
ants than at the tremendous cost Mr. Wilson accepts so 
calmly, just as the German General Staff accepts calmly 
the tearing ta pieces of eight or ten million Germans by 
artillery fire, it is necessary to be resigned to the great sacri- 
fices, because, however great they may be, they are always 
of less consequence than the prodigiously magnificent results 
to be attained. To transform a people suffering from the 
effects of seven hundred years of slavery, illiteracy, physi- 
cal, moral and intellectual misery in two years or less, fol- 
lowing a plan noted for its disregard of all scientific laws, 
is nothing short of performing the greatest of miracles. 



THE MEXICAN PEOPLE THE VICTIMS OF AN ASIATIC WAR 

On August 14, 19 1 4, Senor Venustiano Carranza made 
his triumphant entry into the City of Mexico, "cast in the 
mould of immortality," as his admirer, Senor Fernandez 
Giiell has expressed it, quite a fitting state in which to shed 
that celebrated "molten tear" upon Madero's grave. 

That day must be a memorable one for President Wilson, 
because it indicated that the season for reaping the harvest 
of his idealistic sowing was at hand. 

When Senor Francisco Madero made his triumphal entry 
into the City of Mexico on June 17, 1911, whatever the 
principles shielded by his victorious banner might be, there 
can be no doubt that it was a national triumph, as the fol- 
lowing table will prove: 



290 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 



List of Provisional Governors Appointed After the Triumph 

OF THE MaDERO REVOLUTION 



Aguascalientes 


Alberto Fuentes 




Campeche 


Urbano Espinosa 


Native of Campeche 


Coahuila 


Venustiano Carranza 


Native of Coahuila 


Colima 


Miguel Garcia Topete 


Native of Colima 


Chiapas 


Reynaldo Gordillo Leon 


Native of Chiapas 


Chihuahua 


Abraham Gonzalez 


Native of Chihuahua 


Durango 


Luis Alfonso Trejo 


Native of Durango 


Guanajuato 


Juan B. Castelazo 


Native of Guanajuato 


Guerrero 


Francisco Figueroa 


Native of Guerrero 


Hidalgo 


Jesus Silva 


Native of Hidalgo 


Jalisco 


David Gutierrez Allende 


Native of Jalisco 


Mexico 


Rafael Hidalgo 


Native of Mexico 


Michoacan 


Miguel Silva 


Native of Michoacan 


Morelos 


Juan N. Carrion 


Native of Morelos 


Nuevo Leon 


Leobardo Chapa 


Native of Nuevo Leon 


Oaxaca 


Heliodoro Diaz Quintas 


Native of Oaxaca 


Puebla 


Rafael P. Canete 


Native of Puebla 


Queretaro 


Jose Antonio Septien 


Native of Queretaro 


San Luis Potosi 


Rafael Cepeda 


Native of Coahuila 


Sinaloa 


Celso Gaxiola Rojo 


Native of Sinaloa 


Sonora 


Carlos E. Randall 


Native of Sonora 


Tabasco 


Manuel Mestro Ghigliaza 


Native of Tabasco 


Tamaulipas 


Espiridion Lara 


Native of Tamaulipas 


Vera Cruz 


Leon Aillaud 


Native of Vera Cruz 


Yucatan 


Jose M. Pino Suarez 


Native of Yucatan 


Zacatccas 


Guadalupe Gonzalez 


Native of Zacatecas 



From the foregoing table it will be seen that whatever 
else the Madero triumph signified, it represented a brilliant 
national triumph. Each state was represented by one of its 
own sons, fulfilling an aspiration that had long been felt. 
In Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi alone do we find 
outsiders, and here Madero broke his promise. A nation is 
a civil organism, and as all the provisional governors were 
civilians, another great national aspiration had been realized. 
All classes unanimously rejected the military tyranny, think- 
ing themselves fit for a democratic form of government. 

Let us see what the Carrancista revolution, misnamed 
Constitutional, offers at its triumph on August i, 1913. 
I am going to lay particular stress upon the conquest of the 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 291 



Mexicans of the central states, because those of the south 
have not even yet been conquered by the northerners. 
Governors of the Conquered Northern States in September, 1914 



Chihuahua 

Sonora 

Durango 

Sinaloa 

Coahuila 

Nuevo Leon 

Tamaulipas 



General Avila 
General Jose Maytorena 
General Arrieta 
General Iturbe 
Lawyer Jesus Acuna 



Native of Chihuahua 
Native of Sonora 
Native of Durango 
Native of Sinaloa 
Native of Coahuila 



General Antonio Villarreal Native of Nuevo Leon 
Native of Tamaulipas 



General Luis Caballero 

In the foregoing list it will be noted that with one ex- 
ception all the governors are military men and the sons of 
the respective states they govern. The exception is Senor 
Acuna, and it may be remarked in passing that his name 
appears in this list as Senor Venustiano Carranza's personal 
representative, Senor Carranza proposing to be the Chief 
Executive of the nation, as well as the governor of his own 
state. 

Let us see how the central and southern states are repre- 
sented. 

Governors of the Conquered Central and Southern States 



Aguascalientes 

Guanajuato 

Jalisco 

Mexico 

Michoacan 

Oaxaca 

Puebla 

San Luis Potosi 

Tlaxcala 

Vera Cruz 

Zacatecas 

Chiapas 

Campeche 

Tabasco 

Yucatan 

Morelos 

Guerrero 



September, 1914 
General X 
General Garza 
General Dieguez 
General Murgia 
General G. Sanchez 
General Davila 
General F. Coss 
General E. Gutierrez 
General X 
General C. Aguilar 
General P. Natera 
Under control of J. Carranza 
Under control of J. Carranza 
Under control of J. Carranza 
Under control of J. Carranza 
Southern State 
Southern State 



Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Native of Zacatecas 

Northerner 

Native of Vera Cruz 

Native of Zacatecas 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northeirner 

Northerner 

Zapatista 

Zapatista 



292 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

It will be noted in the foregoing list that Mofelos and 
Guerrero, both southern states, had not been conquered by 
the northerners. Senor Candido Aguilar and Senor Panfilo 
Natera were created military governors of their respective 
states, because both had been allies of the northern revolution. 
There can be no doubt, then, that Carranza's triumph was 
in no sense of the word a national, democratic triumph, but 
simply the triumph of the northerners who had suddenly 
flung themselves against the men of the central states- who 
were unable to resist them, notwithstanding the fact that they 
counted for support upon a population of 1 2,000,000. The 
Zapatistas can lay claim to this glory; they have valiantly 
resisted the attacks of the northerners. 

The conquest of the southerners by the northerners 
smacked of the classic barbarity that characterized the con- 
quests of three thousand years ago, although upon a much 
lower scale. In those memorable days of primitive simplicity, 
the rude and hungry pastoral people bore down upon the rich 
husbandman class, unable to defend themselves because of 
their effeminacy and voluptuousness. The conqueror set fire 
to the temples of his conquered foe, dethroned his idols and 
stole the sacred vessels; the soldiery violated the priestesses; 
the great chiefs, after decapitating the high priests and the 
cowardly aristocrats, took possession of all the movable and 
immovable property of the conquered, reducing them to the 
most abject state of slavery. Only the chiefs of higher rank, 
who were to form the new aristocracy, shared in the division 
of the booty. The greater portion of the conquered slaves 
were sold or kept to satiate the rapacity of their conquerors. 

It is safe to say that the Mexican revolution up to Octo- 
ber, 1915, was not socialistic, anarchistic, constitutionalistic, 
or anything that has ever been seen in modern times; but a 
conquest which placed a yoke of barbaric Asiatic slavery 
upon the great majority of the Mexican people. It was 
somewhat modified by the influence of the times and by its 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 293 

proximity to the United States, which necessarily made the 
northerners more or less circumspect in following too closely 
the historic and prehistoric methods they aimed at. The 
program was formulated by the demagogues for their per- 
sonal benefit; the revolution has given it a historic setting. 



THE FIRST IMPORTANT POLITICAL PROBLEM 

Conquest affects the conquered territory in three ways: 
First, the establishment of a colonial government; second, 
that of a protectorate; third, the possession of the territory 
by the conquerors, who form a governing aristocracy. The 
last was the form taken by the Norman Conquest, and was 
the one accepted in Mexico by the northern conquerors In 
1 9 14 — in idea only — however, because in form it has had all 
the repulsive features of a prehistoric conquest. 

When President Wilson announced to the world in his 
Indianapolis speech, with all the pageantry of his carefully 
chosen words, with the pride of a statesman and the emotion 
of an illumined apostle, that the Mexican people had con- 
quered liberty, facts, those intractable witnesses which can- 
not always be silenced, and which cannot possibly be hidden 
when they are the outcome of the acts of a community, an- 
nounced on their side to the world that the so-called conquest 
of liberty, which President Wilson proclaimed so loudly, 
was nothing more than the galling conquest of the great 
majority of the Mexican people by the northerners. Almost 
all of these men, judged by twentieth-century standards, 
were infamous bandits; heroes, only, if judged by the moral 
standards of three thousand years ago. A truly edifying 
picture does President Wilson's humanitarian work in Mex- 
ico present! 

Mr. Wilson's program included liberty. These twentieth- 
century conquerors could have accepted a liberal regime even 
though they were Mexican northern bandits, but they chose 



294 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

instead a keen-edged military regime, one that did not even 
resemble that of Sesostris or Shalmaneser. They must have 
patterned their government upon that existing some cen- 
turies before even Assyrian civilization, as they announced 
that civilians would have no political rights whatever. 
Everything was to be vested in the military: the right to 
govern; the right to discuss public questions; the right to 
be recompensed for having stolen with a high hand; the 
right to be. considered a Mexican citizen; the right to be con- 
sidered a man. Nothing, absolutely nothing, of civil rights. 

In the time of Shalmaneser the conquered were obliged to 
accept the religion of the conquerors; but as the Constitu- 
tionalists had no religion, the conquered, in order to quiet 
their conscience and still the yearnings of religious senti- 
ment, were to devote themselves to the worship of the First 
Chief, of Villa and even of Obregon. Catholicism was pro- 
hibited because it was an anti-Constitutionalist religion or, 
more properly speaking, that of the Cientificos. 

There were to be no civil magistrates, judges, aldermen, 
mayors, select men, or policemen. No press was to be 
tolerated except that which devoted itself exclusively to 
swinging censers before the altars of the saving heroes of the 
poor. No sealed letters could be exchanged; no telegram 
or written communication could pass uncensored. No one 
could under pain of death be an enemy of the revolution, 
by enemy being understood any one who did not fall down 
and worship at the shrine of these fearful bandits. Follow- 
ing the new revolutionary tenets, the military man should 
be legislator, judge, alderman, mayor, priest, policeman, 
school teacher, notable patriot, supreme hero, robber-in-chief 
and idol to be worshiped. As theft was the sole vivifying 
principle of the revolution, it was not permitted to steal 
even from a pickpocket, because stealing was the special 
privilege of the "saviors of the poor" ; and it behooved all 
to do away with the little they had in order that, being abso- 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 295 

lutely poor, they might share in the benefits of the redeemed. 

And the landholdings, the great landholdings, what of 
them? The greatest among them passed into the hands of 
the Constitutionalist chiefs, to be enjoyed with the rights of 
absolute ownership. What had constituted the great offense 
against the poor had become the great plum of the conquest! 
All the personal property of the wealthy was appropriated 
by the Constitutionalists. Handsome residences, automo- 
biles, jewelry, furniture, money, clothes, everything pos- 
sessed by the aristocrats, and even those who were not aristo- 
crats, was taken by the revolutionists. The Constitutionalist 
revolution was a renovating revolution, and the renovation 
was admirable. The rural peon was transformed into a 
bandit; the bandit into a general; the general into a multi- 
millionaire; the multi-millionaire into an aristocrat of the 
type of a prehistoric tribe, poorly accommodated to 
modern times. Eight days after the Constitutionalist army 
entered the City of Mexico the new aristocracy had been 
formed, such distinguished titles as that of Prince of Con- 
stitutionalism, Duke of the Stolen Automobile, Marquis of 
the Agrarian Question, Count of the Indigenous Race, 
Baron of Free Assassination, Knight of the Idiotic Press, 
shining prominently among them. Such was the equality, 
liberty, fraternity, democracy, virtue, distribution of lands 
offered to the poor, to Mr. Wilson, to the American peo- 
ple and to the Latin-American republics. 

Europe was never taken in, and, as Mr. Wilson knows, 
was never in sympathy with a revolution that was not lib- 
eral or socialistic, or even anarchistic, but simply unvarnished 
brigandage. Mr. Wilson was under the impression that 
what he was upholding was a revolution backed by moral 
principles, which was destined to correct the corruption of 
the Porfirian regime. What he actually upheld was what 
Mr. Fuller, his distinguished special envoy, sent to Mexico 
in Septemberj 1914, reported to him: "No Government 



296 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

exists there, not even militarism, nor is any effort being 
made to do anything to improve the condition of the poor. 
All traces of civilization having vanished; v^^hat exists is a 
defenseless and humiliated society at the mercy of two hun- 
dred thousand bandits." Mr. Fuller's report, and those 
submitted to President Wilson by the Diplomatic Corps 
in Washington and the Brazilian Minister in Mexico, ad- 
dressed to Mr. Bryan, all in the same tenor, obliged Presi- 
dent Wilson to decline to recognize as a government this 
anarchical imbroglio, the grandiose result of an idealistic 
theory of redemption. 

In August, 1914, President Wilson's triumph was com- 
plete. Huerta had fallen ; the decent landowners had fallen, 
to be replaced by bandits; the Cientificos, who existed only 
in President Wilson's imagination and in the perverse will 
of those who were making game of their name, had fallen; 
Catholicism had fallen, as well as courts, law, justice, 
national prosperity, respect for the foreigner and for the 
moral power of the United States. Zapata had proclaimed 
the restoration of the ancient Aztec regime and radical 
socialism, and was the only patriotic bandit, as he had never 
asked Mr. Wilson's protection in exchange for slices of 
national sovereignty. Villa had appeared as the Mahdi of 
the Soudan, with his insane program of unlimited plunder 
and assassination, of arbitrariness and despotism, a beast or 
a maniac, spreading fire and destruction in his pathway. 
Carranza had appeared as the reactionist against Porfirism. 
Everything was for himself, exclusively for himself. The 
revolution, the bandits, the budding statesmen, the Forra, 
the intellectual offscourings, the public degradation, the 
political corruption, the oppressed people — everything be- 
longed to him, and was to be immediately put into action 
to inaugurate another thirty years' dictatorship, modelled 
after the most approved pattern of 19 10, with an open road 
to ignominy along the triumphal highway of theft. The 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 297 

revolution is to be understood only in its relation to theft, 
and when there is no longer anything to steal the revolution 
will die, leaving no provision in its will for a moribund peo- 
ple, bereft, in the process of redemption, of every vestige of 
civilization. 

A period of humiliation has been ushered in for President 
Wilson since the complete triumph of this Constitutionalism, 
characterized by unbridled license. His humiliation con- 
sists in the justly wounded pride of the United States, theo- 
retically the worshipper of his omnipotence, which was 
based solely upon the powerful arsenals of his moral force. 
This moral force Mr. Wilson has squandered in the 
"bluffs," so absolutely indispensable in his game of political 
poker. The apostolic President believed that in procuring 
victory for the Mexican liberators, the White House would 
have their assistance in carrying out its experiments, enabling 
it to turn Mexico into a great laboratory for the working 
out of all sane and insane idealistic theories. But to his 
great surprise their one object seemed to be to relieve every 
one of the weight of all movable and immovable property, 
of all moral and intellectual advantages. The Princeton 
professor was convinced before long that his proteges were 
nothing more than rebellious subjects; and the President of 
the United States, understanding his responsibilities before 
the world, and especially before the upright and well mean- 
ing portion of the American people, in appearing as the 
accomplice of bandits given over to the task of transforming 
a once thriving nation into a material and moral dung- 
heap, urgently recommended that the northerners should 
proclaim at once a general and far-reaching amnesty. The 
reply was that, instead of Constitutionalism, a regime of pre- 
historic government had been inaugurated without other 
laws than the will of the chief of each band, the country 
having been divided into bands, nominally under the juris- 
diction of different supreme authorities. Mr. Wilson then 



298 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

abandoned his humanitarian projects and assumed a luke- 
warm neutrality before the appalling spectacle of the an- 
archy reigning in Mexico. Following the cruel advice of 
various newspapers, he resolved to leave the Mexicans to 
fight it out among themselves — with arms furnished by the 
United States — until the incorrigibles either saved them- 
selves or were exterminated, consigned to the grave with 
opprobrium and destined to oblivion as a pernicious race 
worthy of its doom. Without a doubt it was good advice. 
Let nature take its course. Let anarchy, the representative 
of all the vital and morbid forces of the organism, have full 
play. But Mr. Wilson was as implacable as a German sub- 
marine in the presence of an unarmed ocean liner. In this 
he was influenced by his hatred of the imaginary Cientificos; 
of the imaginary cruel landowners; of the imaginary enemies 
of the eighty-five per cent; of the Mexican cultured classes, 
who refused to submit to his idealistic theories; of the pa- 
triots, who resented his interference in Mexican politics; of 
the imaginary foreigners, who robbed the poor during the 
Diaz dictatorship; of all the middle classes, who refused to 
conform to the revolution; of all the capitalists, who did 
not favor the program of being robbed of all their posses- 
sions; of everything in Mexico that had a conservative 
aspect, that represented the prestige of the past or a senti- 
ment of tenderness or veneration for an ideal not exactly 
in keeping with that set down by the President of the 
United States for the Mexican people. 

He rejected the happy idea that the state of anarchy exist- 
ing in Mexico should be settled by giving full reign to all 
the social forces: sinister, elevating, civilizing, infernal, re- 
pulsive or sublime. 

He rejected the scientific principle that anarchy itself 
should work against anarchy and, that failing, have recourse 
to armed intervention. The Mexican people would have 
asked for it as suppliants, because the unnatural impulse to 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 299 

suicide can never take hold of a whole nation. They never 
would have asked for it directly, however; they would have 
allowed their silent resignation or agonizing gasp to speak 
for them. 

President Wilson tenaciously opposed the Mexicans avail- 
ing themselves of the last resource held out to them to fight 
as a national unit for their deliverance, before being driven 
to accept the protectorate of the United States. This, how- 
ever, would not have been imposed without a heroic struggle 
to defend their national honor, and to leave to them the 
consciousness of having done their duty before being over- 
taken by disaster. He refused to grant what the Mexican 
people had a right to demand — their regeneration through 
exclusively national elements, united for a supreme, final 
effort. This failing, anarchy could swallow them up, or 
their nation could cease to exist, but they would be spared 
the contempt of the world and that of their conquerors. 

Huerta appeared in El Paso for the final stand, ready to 
return to his country in arms and ammunition the wealth 
he had stolen, offering his life, which justice would perhaps 
have accepted. At that moment President Wilson, tramp- 
ling all laws under foot, had him arrested, cast into prison 
and held there until death claimed him for its own. Pascual 
Orozco and other leaders were hounded by American 
rangers when they were nothing more than inoffensive politi- 
cal refugees, fleeing from courts which were wont to judge 
trumped-up charges by codes of strict justice. It is evident 
that even if Huerta had penetrated into Mexican territory 
with revolutionary intentions, he could not possibly have re- 
covered the supreme power. Nevertheless, his revolution 
would have served a useful purpose, because it would have 
drawn the persecuted popular class to its ranks, as well as 
the younger element of the Federal army and the better 
class civilians, who had every right to cross the frontier to 
reconquer their country, snatched from them by the bandits, 



300 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

led by Villa, Carranza, Zapata and the Convention, pro- 
tected by the President of the United States. 

The state of Oaxaca has 1,300,000 inhabitants, almost all 
of them full-blooded Indians. They are industrious, honest, 
brave, attached to their traditions, having no interest in the 
distribution of lands because their property is held in com- 
mon, and their ancestors for generations back have tilled the 
same soil. These Indians have never been revolutionists. 
They love liberty and Catholicism and their native state, 
have always obeyed the laws, and are an estimable national 
group which has always been remarkable for its patriotism. 
In 1 9 10 Oaxaca was not Porfirista, and it has never been 
Felicista. It is true Felix Diaz has a following in Oaxaca, 
but it is very insignificent. They set their face energetically 
and valiantly against the revolution's program of pillage; 
they resolved not to allow themselves to be trampled upon, 
their property destroyed, their religion besmirched, them- 
selves placed in bondage. This community deserved to be 
commended b)'- President Wilson as really worthy of protec- 
tion. Nevertheless, what does the grandee of the White 
House do but prevent them from buying arms and ammuni- 
tion with their own money in the United States — the only 
market open to them — not to start an insurrection, be it re- 
membered, but to defend their lives and property against the 
Carrahcista hordes that were descending on thiem, bent upon 
spreading devastation broadcast here as they had done else- 
where. President Wilson does not wish the conflict between 
the bandits to become complicated ; he wishes, evidently, that 
the duel between Villa and Carranza shall have only one 
result — the triumph of brigandage against society. 

In the states of Vera Cruz, Michoacan and Guanajuato 
there have been counter-revolutionary movements, organized 
by the landowners, ranchmen, small property owners, those 
who farmed on the co-partnership basis, and Catholics of all 
classes and conditions who still have the spirit to defend their 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 301 

faith. If the Catholics of the United States had been as in- 
famously treated as the Mexican Catholics have been, they 
would have taken up arms and fought v^^ith their bishops and 
priests at their head, making themselves respected by their 
enemies and winning universal applause. When the Mexi- 
can Catholics have attempted to make use of a right no civ- 
ilized man can deny them. President Wilson has given 
orders that these "rebels" be not permitted to buy arms and 
ammunition in the United States. 

The principle of self-preservation exists and always will 
exist in the popular masses, as it exists in the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms, notwithstanding all the real and unreal 
forces that may be brought to bear against it. When this 
giant stirs, it shakes off the shackles and a reaction favorable 
to a normal life asserts itself, sweeping all reforms clean of 
everything but what in the light of truth and justice can be 
considered real progress. 

Of all the social classes the popular class is the most con- 
servative, although to the eyes of incautious politicians it 
may appear extremely sensitive to progressive suggestions. 
Ignorance and sentiment tend to make men live in the past. 
Habits of mind and heart formed generation by generation 
cannot be lightly cast off, and that new mode of life chiselled 
out of the purely progressive material is an unfortunate fic- 
tion of politicians, who attempt to make a credulous public 
accept at their face value the absurdities they call social re- 
forms. In man all development is gradual. His existence 
embraces the past, or perhaps it would be more correct to 
say that the past embraces him, and all new theories advanced 
by men, even if they be reformers, are almost all unreal 
dreams and visions. Industrial progress goes by leaps and 
bounds, from oil lamps to incandescent lights in sixty years. 
Each step in moral progress takes at least a century and 
measures at the most one centimeter. The secret of politics 
lies in knowing how to wait. The masses easily take the bit 



302 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

between their teeth and bolt from the control of their former 
masters, but always turn to them to be saved when they feel 
the ground giving way under their feet and a yawning abyss 
opening to receive them. 

For some months past the majority of the Mexican pop- 
ular classes has evinced excellent dispositions to cease the 
conflict and return, like bruised lambs, to the sheep-fold. 
They want to reenkindle their hearth fires, to give repose 
to their weary spirits, to resume the habits of life handed 
down by their ancestors, to gather anew round the altars of 
their patron saints and their miraculous Virgins, to listen to 
the paternal voice of their spiritual fathers, and to feel the 
soothing influence of human sensations evoked by consoling 
voices which will sooth their sufferings, awaken sacred mem- 
ories, and revive the faith and hope that criminal ambition 
has all but killed. This healthful and reconstructive social 
reaction — reconstructive because reaction is never complete 
if it does not add something to the sum of progress — has not 
been possible in Mexico because Mr. Wilson, always im- 
placable, has vowed upon the altar of his animosity that the 
Mexican ex-governing classes must perish, or be satisfied to 
live in slavery under the tyrannical yoke of the northern con- 
querors. Only the bandits may have arms and ammunition ! 



PRESIDENT WILSON S PUNISHMENT BEGINS 

In return for all this paternal solicitude, what did the 
Mexican revolutionists do during the struggle between Za- 
pata and Villa against Carranza? Humiliate Mr. Wilson, 
slight him, crush his moral power, ridicule his magisterial 
attitude, insult the American flag, assassinate Americans, 
outrage American women, martyr their children, fire their 
properties, spit upon the people's rights and treat all for- 
eigners in Mexico as though they were devoid of rights. The 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 303 

press in the United States began to see through the mist and 
to scrutinize the Mexican liberators in the light of fuller 
knowledge. It found that they were nothing but bandits 
having a semi-military organization, corrupted to the very 
core by a set of educated but unscientific knaves, with a sur- 
plus of unprincipled schemes. 

Uncomfortable days were in store for Mr. Wilson. Dr. 
William Bayard Hale, President Wilson's ex-confidential 
agent in Mexico, published an article authorized by the 
White House in The World's Work, in which some startling 
declarations were made. He says: "The American forces 
will be withdrawn (from Vera Cruz) just as soon as con- 
stitutional order has been restored." In order to keep this 
promise President Wilson handed Vera Cruz over in No- 
vember, 1914, to Don Venustiano Carranza. He was a fugi- 
tive from justice, who had taken refuge at Vera Cruz and 
who, in order to get possession of the town, had threatened 
an attack by the Constitutionalist forces under General 
Aguilar. The latter, in order to give weight to the First 
Chief's pretensions, issued orders to open fire on the Amer- 
ican outposts. In view of this attitude on the part of Senor 
Carranza, President Wilson decreed the immediate with- 
drawal of the American forces, which was carried out at the 
point of Constitutionalist rifles. General Funston taking in 
his knapsack everything he ought to have except the salute 
to the American flag, which was what had ostensibly brought 
him to Vera Cruz. 

It occurred to Senor Carranza in one of his virulent at- 
tacks of hate to imitate a monstrous Roman Caesar in his 
vengeance against the City of Mexico, which had manifested 
its abhorrence for Constitutionalism. The First Chief is 
not capable of understanding how perfectly natural it was 
for the capital of Mexico, the center of its civilization, to 
look with horror upon the filthy, unkempt hordes, steeped in 
all kinds of crime, which swooped down upon it. As Senor 



304 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Carranza does not possess the creative facility it is not pos- 
sible for him ever to possess the real governing power. 

To carry out his atrocious scheme of vengeance against the 
City of Mexico, Sefior Carranza determined to starve its 
half-million inhabitants, by robbing them of all their provi- 
sions, and shipping them to Vera Cruz. The capital was be- 
ing besieged by the Zapatistas, and in order to prevent the 
evacuation of the city by its inhabitants the First Chief for- 
bade the running of trains for the accommodation of the 
people. There were twelve thousand foreigners in Mexico 
at that time, including women and children, two thousand of 
whom were Americans. It would have been a serious situa- 
tion for Mr. Wilson, the omnipotent representative of the 
European Powers in virtue of the Monroe Doctrine, to have 
presented to the world the corpses of twelve thousand of 
their subjects committed to his care, murdered or starved to 
death. 

The Brazilian Minister, charged with looking out for 
the interests of the United States Government in the City 
of Mexico, worked courageously, heroically, with self-abne- 
gation and intelligence, as he had to deal with a mob that 
showed as much international respect for the United States 
and its President as it did for a disarmed group of the 
much-hated landowners. The Socialist Pinzon, haranguing 
the crowds that shouted at the doors of the Jockey Club, con- 
verted into the Temple of the Industrial Workers of the 
World, the afternoon that the altars of the church of Santa 
Brigida were desecrated, said: "Boys, you all know now of 
how much use the 'gringo Wilson' can be to us, because he 
is nothing more than a Cientifico." And the excited mob 
yelled with delirious excitement: "Death to the Cientifico 
Wilson." 

It can easily be understood why during those dreadful 
days the cable announced each morning: "Anxiety in Wash- 
ington"; "Insomnia in Washington"; "Panic in Washing- 



THE COLLAPSE OF WILSON'S POLICY 305 

ton"; "Profound Unrest in Washington." And in Europe, 
notwithstanding the war, disquiet also manifested itself when 
it was seen that comfortable slumber robes were being made 
out of the cloth of the imposing Monroe Doctrine, by Za- 
pata, Villa, Carranza, Gutierrez and the rest, all proteges of 
the White House. The Zapatistas saved the City of Mex- 
ico and made themselves popular. 

The Naco incident was another humiliation for the Unit- 
ed States Government. It did not dare to give the order 
"Fire!" notwithstanding the fact that it had threatened to 
exterminate Hill and Maytorena if they did not stop firing 
shells into Douglas. After forty-seven Americans had been 
sacrificed, some dead, some woimded and some injured, the 
White House played its trump card by sending General 
Scott to parley with the belligerents, convincing them — some 
say by means more persuasive than words — of the necessity 
of comporting themselves with more respect and circumspec- 
tion toward the United States Government, which they had 
already sufficiently outraged. 

At last President Wilson decided to break with Mexican 
anarchy in favor of the revolutionists by the new method of 
extinguishing a fire by deluging it with gasoline. When I 
take up the Columbus incident for consideration I shall con- 
clude my observations of the greatest of President Wilson's 
errors — recognizing as a de facto government one whose acts 
have proved it to be a de facto anarchy. 



PART FOUR 

MEXICO'S PROBABLE CONDITION IN THE 
IMMEDIATE FUTURE 



CHAPTER I 
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 

THE FURIOUS ASSAULT OF FAMINE 

IN Part First I have proved that the so-called agrarian 
problem, which of itself offers no difficulty and ought 
not to cause the shedding of one drop of blood, is dom- 
inated by the problem of himger, a problem that cannot be 
solved by the favorite law of terror \\ath which the revo- 
lution attempts to solve all problems whatever their import 
may be. 

I stated, supported by ample evidence, that in 1803 the 
average yield of corn obtained by dry farming in the cold 
and temperate zones was seventy-five hectoliters per hectare. 
I also proved that this average had decreased in one hundred 
years to nine hectoliters per hectare. When this decreases to 
three hectoliters per hectare, it will be impossible for the 
man depending upon agriculture for his living, to continue 
to provide for his family even upon the present meagre scale. 
And if we take into consideration the frequent losses of 
crops, it will only require a decrease to four and one-half 
hectoliters per hectare to bring about a critical state of hun- 
ger among the people. To my mind this problem may be 
summed up in the question. How long will it be before the 
lands of the cold and temperate zones will reach the stage 
of unproductiveness that will render their cultivation eco- 
nomically impossible? When I spoke before of this serious 
situation I said that, once the production fell below the pres- 
ent nine hectoliters per hectare, it would be a question of 
from only fifteen to twenty years before an acute stage of 
famine would exist. 

307 



3o8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The Diaz administration understood this economic situa- 
tion. It has always been ignored by the revolutionists. They 
turned their attention to the tillers of the soil with no other 
thought in mind than that of inciting them to revolt in order 
to bring about a great social revolution which would further 
their own selfish personal interests. 

The problem of hunger caused by the exhaustion of the 
lands of the cold and temperate zones, given over almost 
exclusively to corn dry farming, has one solution only, the 
substitution of the intensive for the extensive method of cul- 
tivation. The former has to be done entirely by irrigation. 
From scientific estimates it ha3 been computed that with from 
$700,000,000 to $800,000,000 gold, honestly spent in irri- 
gation plants, a sufficient quantity of land could be irrigated 
in fifteen years to produce enough food at a reasonable price 
to feed a population of 20,000,000 inhabitants, and do away 
with the frequent famines that are such drawbacks to the 
progress and well-being of the nation. 

The present revolution has cost the unfortunate Mexican 
people up to date, March 15, 19 13, approximately: 

Destruction of Mexican property 1,000,000,000 pesos 

Probable amount of foreign claims 1,000,000,000 " 

For the reconstruction and equipping of rail- 
roads 150,000,000 " 

Probable railway debt from destruction of 

roadbeds and rolling stock 150,000,000 " 

Minimum issue of paper money by the revo- 
lutionists 500,000,000 " 

Minimum issue of paper money by the banks.. 150,000,000 " 

Gold and silver coin taken out of the country. . 160,000,000 " 

Increase of the public debt 240,000,000 " 

Left by the dictator. General Porfirio Diaz, in 

the National Treasury 62,000,000 " 

Total 3,412,000,000 pesos 

It will be seen from this that the glorious revolution, 
carried on especially for the benefit of the poor, has cost the 
Mexican people double the amount in gold that it would 



THE Magnitude of the disaster 309 

have cost to have irrigated the land and to have thus pre- 
vented the famine that may eventually send the majority of 
them to the grave. I proved that the Diaz administration 
was prepared in 1908 to spend 90,000,000 pesos for irriga- 
tion. The work was suspended and contracts nullified by the 
revolution of 19 10. Madero planned a work of liberty and 
succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship by means of a 
campaign of hatred. This was the inevitable result in a coun- 
try where the people were unfit for liberty. This same 
hatred for the Government caused the fall of Madero. It 
was subsequently transferred to Huerta, and is now being 
displayed toward Carranza. 

The "regenerating" cyclone had made the country lose 
six years, from 1910 to 1916, which might have been de- 
voted uninterruptedly to carrying out the plans for irriga- 
tion which the dictatorship had under consideration. Even 
if the work of irrigation were begun at once, the probabili- 
ties are that it would take from nine to fourteen years to 
stay the famine crisis which the nation is now facing. It 
will be necessary first to put an end to the present state of 
anarchy. How soon this will be cannot be determined, but 
in any event it will not be soon, as I shall explain later on. 

Mexico must have many million pesos of foreign capital 
before she can proceed with the necessary irrigation work, 
and to accomplish this even on a small scale it will be abso- 
lutely necessary for her to reestablish her public and private 
credit, completely lost by the revolution's direful program of 
vengeance, theft and demolition. If the total Mexican pub- 
lic debt could be estimated at this moment it would be nec- 
essary for the Government to set aside at least seventy-five 
per cent of its annual revenues to meet it, corresponding to 
the maximum revenues collected before this much-lauded re- 
demptory revolution. As anarchy is likely to continue its 
redeeming work, it is almost certain that with one year 
more of this excellent, fructifying redemption, the Mexican 



3IO WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Government will be obliged to set aside a sum equivalent to 
its entire revenue in its most prosperous times to meet the 
public debt. 

Taking into consideration probabilities, or we might say, 
facts, it will not be possible for Mexico to obtain an annual 
loan of $100,000,000 gold to enable it to carry out in ten 
j^ears its irrigation plans This, of course, could be obtained 
only under the express and absolute condition that a stable 
and responsible government would be guaranteed. Such a 
government does not exist in Mexico now; the country is 
simply in the hands of a band of insatiable thieves. As it is 
impossible to reform the Mexican public administration with- 
out the extermination of the bandits — something that can 
be brought about only by a great moral revolution — it can be 
predicted with certainty almost that the majority of the in- 
habitants of the cold and temperate lands will be reduced to 
a state of abject misery or exterminated by the inexorable 
scourge of famine. It will be difficult for the dying, and 
for the minority of the Mexican people who may escape de- 
struction, to look with sentiments of gratitude and admira- 
tion upon President Wilson and his advisers for the effica- 
cious protection given by them to the bandits. The latter 
were the first to submerge civilization in Mexico and to at- 
tempt to exterminate the majority of her inhabitants. 

THE IMMEDIATE DANGER OF FAMINE 

It goes without saying that the revolutionary financiers do 
not know the real effect of paper money upon a community. 
Government paper money is a forced loan made to the pub- 
lic, without interest and practically without set time for re- 
demption. The distribution of this forced loan does not 
work with equity for all classes of society. The issue of 
paper money has very little effect on the capitalist, except 
that of enabling him to amass wealth with scandalous rapid- 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 311 

ity; but it imposes upon the already oppressed poor one of 
the most abominable forms of usury. The landowners pro- 
tect themselves against its ravages by raising the price of 
their products, not only as high as may be necessary to pro- 
tect their interests, but also high enough to enable them to 
realize enormous profits, as I shall demonstrate. 

Mexican money has passed through the following changes : 

Value of Mexican 
Dates Peso in Gold 

May 24, 1911, fall of Diaz $0.4748 

February 19, 1913, fall of Madero •4726 

July 15, 1914, fall of Huerta, paper money, bank 

issue -2938 

October ii, 1915, recognition of Carranza, Carran- 

cista paper money .0700 

March 7, 1916 -0255 

This table amply demonstrates the potential power of the 
revolution to bring the country to the point of disaster. It 
also indicates the incompetence of the Carrancista financiers. 

As we have said, the issue of paper money by the state is 
in reality a forced loan without interest and without time 
for redemption, and when the paper money depreciates the 
loss falls exclusively upon the wage-earning community, that 
is, upon the poor, who must live from the proceeds of their 
work. Owing to the exigencies of the revolution more than 
1 50,000,000 pesos bank paper money had been issued in Mex- 
ico, and a minimum of 500,000,000 pesos Carrancista paper 
money. This figure was given by the First Chief himself. 
The total of the paper money recognized amounts to 650,- 
000,000 pesos. The effects of the depreciation of this has 
fallen almost exclusively upon the poor. Without doubt 
this revolution has been carried out for their benefit, to the 
grim accompaniment of hunger, tears, sighs and official 
schools ! 



312 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

A comparison of the salaries and day wages of the Por- 
firian dictatorship with those of the glorious period of re- 
demption gives the following: 

Day Wages and Salaries Day Wages and Salariet 
Wage Earners Before the Revolution, Computed in Gold in 

Computed in Gold March, 1916 

Peon in the cold and temperate 

zone, day wage $0,185 $0.0630 

Skilled workman 1.125 .1140 

Mason in Mexico .75 .1020 

Employee, Federal Government, 

daily average salary 2.50 '1275 

State Government employee, aver- 
age daily wage 1.35 -1657 

Private employee, daily average 

salary 1.50 .1698 

I have computed the daily earnings of the private em- 
ployees at $0.1698, because their salaries have been doubled 
on account of the depreciation of the paper money. The 
Government has doubled the salaries of the school teachers 
all over the country, the other employees receiving an in- 
crease of twenty per cent in the City of Mexico only. Even 
taking these increases into account, and even if all salaries 
were doubled, the original salaries and day wages have been 
so enormously reduced by the depreciation of the currency 
that all wage earners have practically been reduced to the 
lowest stages of misery. Let us see what salaries and day 
wages amount to, computed in corn, which now, more than 
ever, represents the exclusive, or almost exclusive, article of 
food. In the first half of March, 191 6, the average price 
of a hectoliter of corn in the most densely populated part of 
the Republic was 80 pesos Carrancista paper money 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 313 

Salaries and Day Wages Computed in Corn at 80 Pesob per 
Hectoliter 

Wage Earners Before the Redemplory AJter the Redemptory 

Revolution Revolution 

Peon in the temperate and cold 

zone, daily wage 9,248 grammes 3,150 grammes 

Skilled workman, daily wage.. 43,188 " 4,27s " 

Mason in Mexico City 28,125 " 3,825 " 

Federal Government employee, 

average daily wage 93,7SO " 4,782 " 

State Government employee, 

average daily wage 46,875 " 5,738 " 

Private employee, average daily 

wage 56,250 " 2,869 " 

The foregoing table proves that this revolution for the 
poor has been a scourge, not a redemption. A family of five, 
which can live on four daily adult rations, is obliged to sub- 
sist in a semi-acute state of hunger upon not more than two 
thousand grammes of corn a day. The Mexican people are 
very near the semi-acute state of hunger, which can only be 
endured for a few months; and they are even near the acute 
state, which kills in a few days. To reach this, thereby com- 
pleting the work of redemption, all that will be necea»ary 
will be one year of poor crops, or that the disproportion be- 
tween the depreciation of the paper money and the increase 
in salaries and day wages continue on the same scale, or, 
more properly speaking, that the actual salaries and day 
wages continue to decrease at the present alarming rate. 

It is not possible at this time to estimate the com crop 
gathered in December, 19 15, because, although the price of 
a hectoliter, estimated in gold, is more or less what it was 
previous to the revolution, when the crop was good, the 
planter cannot, in case the crops have been only medium or 
bad, keep the grain stored for fear of its being stolen, and, 
consequently, sells it as soon as possible. Not until July 
next shall we know if in the last half of the present year a 
state of absolute famine will exist in Mexico. 



314 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

NEW DEVICES TO ANNIHILATE THE POOR 

After bringing the working dasses to the brink of the 
grave by the reduction in salaries and wages caused by the 
depreciated currency, the revolutionists issued an order — 
with a view to ameliorating their condition — in virtue of 
which all tenants were relieved of the obligation of paying 
rent when this was below one hundred pesos a month. This 
order has ruined all small property owners throughout Mex- 
ico. Those who depended entirely upon their rents for tKeir 
livelihood are in some cases face to face with absolute star- 
vation. 

It is not possible to fight against plutocracies, and the rich 
in general, if one cannot count upon men in the Government 
service whose honesty is beyond question. Otherwise, the 
rich can easily buy up corrupt ojfficials, making the unfortu- 
nate public stand the additional cost. The farmers are in 
league with the Constitutionalist officers, who permit them to 
raise the price of corn as high as possible, compelling the 
poor to pay far more than they ever paid during the dictator- 
ship, which never permitted excessive prices to be demanded 
for articles of prime necessity. The Constitutionalist sub- 
ordinate chiefs and officers have confiscated all freight cars, 
classifying them as dwellings, which are to be used for mil- 
itary purposes only. A merchant may obtain cars for the 
transportation of merchandise only by paying the exorbitant 
sum of five, ten or fifteen thousand pesos paper for each car, 
an expense that is charged to the consumer. 

The revolutionary Government forbids the exportation of 
grain, cattle, breeding stock, hides, and cotton. But here, 
too, the Constitutionalist chiefs arc in league with the ex- 
porters, and unblushingly permit them to evade the law, 
thereby increasing their revenues at the expense of the un- 
fortunate poor. The Constitutionalist chiefs, with a few rare 
exceptions, have gone into the field of illegitimate business. 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 315 

besides having openly helped themselves to public funds and 
to every sort of movable and immovable private property they 
could lay their hands upon. This truly inestimable service of 
robbing the poor, carried to an extreme never known before, 
is perfectly logical, because a revolution that has made theft 
its doctrine, its incentive, its passion, its legislative work, its 
administrative method, its supreme ideal, its one and only 
thought, could hardly have produced real statesmen. Its of- 
ficials are a set of grafters, pure and simple, and public opin- 
ion stands aghast in the presence of a situation such as that 
disclosed by this stupendous collection of grafters and crooks 
of all classes, sizes, races and professions, who pose as a gov- 
erning body. It has reached a point when to be a revolution- 
ist is synonymous with being a thief, and even though an oc- 
casional honest man may be found in the ranks of these so- 
called reformers, they must be either crazy or strangely dull 
not to realize that they have lost, or are fast losing, their 
reputation. 

Never have the poor of any nation been so wantonly 
robbed as have been the Mexicans by their so-called saviors. 
It passes belief that this work of moral and economic de- 
struction should have had for its chief protector a President 
of the United States. 

THE PARTITION OF LAND A FIASCO 

The responsibility of the Mexican revolutionists and their 
protectors is immense. Those who have brought about pres- 
ent conditions in Mexico feel an overwhelming political 
weight, not that they care about the verdict of history, the 
judgment of abstract justice, the protests of victims, or the 
moral and material desolation of their country; but because 
they know that public opinion, both national and foreign, pos- 
sesses the suggestive power to implant terror in the heart of 
armies, demoralize the agents of crime and tyranny, and give 



3i6 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

to reactionary movements the strength to conquer. Closely- 
pressed by the searching inquiries of the civilized veorld, 
which demands to know by what right such an astounding 
crime as the destruction of a nation of fifteen millions inhab- 
itants has been committed, the responsible ones, after much 
deliberation, decided to give to the world the wonderful se- 
crets of that revolution, which has had for its component 
parts vengeance against those who declined to allow them- 
selves to be robbed, and public and private theft. 

We know that the ostensible object of the revolution was 
the distribution of land among the poor, the destruction of 
foreign influence in Mexico, the extermination of obscur- 
antism, and the initiation of various reforms. The agrarian 
plan is supported by persons who appear to be in good faith, 
and among these I find four engineers and one professor, 
constituted into an agrarian commission, who are the authors 
of a pamphlet entitled A donde vamosf (Where Are We 
Going?). After reading the pamphlet, I feel obliged to 
ratify the opinion I have several times expressed, that it is 
the learned rather than the ignorant who have done Mexico 
the most harm by attempting to combine their learning and 
their politics. The authors of the pamphlet I have men- 
tioned have committed an error common to all mediocre 
scientists; that is, giving too superficial consideration to seri- 
ous public and private questions. 

In this pamphlet New Zealand is, as usual, brought for- 
ward as an example of the methods that may be adopted 
for the partition of land, but the writers have not taken the 
trouble to study the conditions that prevail in New Zealand. 
In that country there are magnificent lands, with a climate 
in everj'^ way favorable for the cultivation of grain; there 
are lands in sections where the rainfall is irregular which 
are not suitable for the cultivation of cereals, but which 
afford excellent natural pasture; and there are lands which 
are not suitable on account of climatic conditions for either 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 317 

agriculture or cattle-raising. The perusal of the reports 
of the various technical and economical commissions, which 
have directed the New Zealand Government in the distri- 
bution of the land, leaves no doubt that these commissions 
advised the Government to distribute only such arable land 
as had a suitable climate. It never occurred to them to sug- 
gest that land suitable only for summer pasture should be 
distributed for purposes of cultivation. Moreover, the lands 
distributed were virgin, or almost entirely so. It is only 
necessary for some of our sages who write so learnedly about 
New Zealand to decide to reform conditions in Mexico for 
them to reveal their ignorance of actual conditions there. 
I have made it very clear in Part First that in the Republic 
of Mexico there are no arable virgin lands in the cold and 
temperate zones with good climatic conditions. On the 
contrary, those that possess the best climatic conditions are 
not suitable for the formation of small landholdings, and are, 
moreover, almost if not entirely exhausted. For this reason 
the planters have ceased to cultivate them. 

The agricultural conditions in New Zealand and Mexico 
being very different, it is absurd to try to apply to Mexico 
rules that have worked successfully in New Zealand. 
Owing to lack of scientific knowledge on the part of our 
sages, a frantic state of enthusiasm for the execution of im- 
possible reforms in favor of the poor has been created. This 
exists, however, not among the popular rural classes, who 
know more about the land question than the learned engi- 
neers and agriculturists, but among the urban popular, sub- 
popular and middle classes, and in President Wilson's mind 
and in that of the American public. It is true that in Yuca- 
tan the land suitable for the cultivation of henequen could 
be advantageously distributed; but this area is an insignifi- 
cant proportion compared to the total of the cold and tem- 
perate lands. The revolution has presented the agrarian 
question as a national problem, not one restricted to 



3i8 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Yucatan. The tropical arable lands of Morelos would also 
be subject to advantageous subdivision, and there must be 
others similar to these in the Republic. But if the benefit 
of distribution does not embrace the great majority of the 
popular rural classes, who are the needy ones, the only con- 
clusion to be drawn is that the revolution is worthy of con- 
demnation only, for having brought the unfortunate Mex- 
ican nation to its present plight of moral and economic 
misery without offering any adequate recompense for the 
sacrifices exacted. The distribution of lands has been the 
concoction of unscientific sages, uneducated visionaries and 
unpatriotic knaves. 

Senor Cabrera has attempted to solve the agrarian ques- 
tion by reinstating the towns in their original rights over 
the lands formerly controlled by the municipality. Appar- 
ently under his plan it is of no consequence whether the 
lands belong to the planters, to the villages or to the poor 
farmers. But if, as we now know, the great majority of 
the lands in the cold and temperate zones are no longer of 
any value as great, medium or small landholdings, it is 
nothing short of the most shocking perversity, stupidity or 
ignorance to inaugurate tremendously destructive conflicts 
in order to establish the ownership of something that is abso- 
lutely worthless. I have stated and proved that in case these 
arable lands, with a climate suitable for the advantageous 
establishment of small landholdings, had existed, the distri- 
bution would have been carried out without the shedding 
of blood, because the few opposers would not even have had 
recourse to argument, knowing that they could not count 
upon an appreciable support to oppose the real social and 
governmental will. 

What has been the practical result of this great revolu- 
tionary promise after twenty months' triumph of the revo- 
lution? Failure! The law of January 6, 19 15, issued by 
the First Chief, decreeing the reestablishment cf the munici- 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 319 

pal ownership of land, is not the fulfillment of this promise, 
but the making of a new one — also to be broken — because 
in order to divide the lands it will be necessary for the Con- 
stitutionalist chiefs to return the lands they have stolen. If 
the First Chief exacts this they will declare him a traitor 
to the real and sacred principles of the revolution — public 
and private pillage — and will either kill him or depose him 
from his high office. The distribution of lands, that fair 
promise which has been the fountainhead of this torrent of 
tragedies, crimes and shamelessness, has been set aside until 
such time as the First Chief, being transformed into a states- 
man, will know what he should do — and this will never 
come to pass. 

THE PATRIOTIC ANTI-FOREIGN WAR A FIASCO 

The culminating lie — the merciless exploitation of the 
Mexican people by the cupidity of foreign capitalists — 
swallowed with all its garnishings by President Wilson, 
caused him to say to Mr. Samuel G. Blythe on May 23, 
1 91 4, in the interview in The Saturday Evening Post from 
which I have already quoted: "Second — No personal ag- 
grandizement by American investors or adventures or cap- 
italists, or exploitation of that country, will be permitted." 
When he uttered these imposing words President Wilson 
forgot that for a whole year he had protected the mercenary 
band of Americans who, in company with the most atrocious 
of the Mexican bandits, had established in unmolested tran- 
quillity on United States territory a great market for the 
disposal of the loot collected all over the downtrodden, 
blood-stained Republic of Mexico. 

I do not know of any greater, more barefaced, more de- 
grading theft perpetrated against the Mexican people by 
foreigners than the one I have just mentioned. The revo- 
lutionists have beei} the' great protectors of foreign thieves 



320 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

and continue to be so. I have stated, amply substantiating 
my statement, that during the Porfirian dictatorship almost 
all the great foreign capital invested in Mexico operated for 
the good of the people, delivering them from the overwhelm- 
ing misery that had kept them semi-savage and in a state 
of anarchy. The assertion that foreign capital, especially 
American capital, was the vampire that had sucked the blood 
of the Aztec people to the point of inebriation, was the lie 
that fomented the Boxer feeling which transformed the heart 
of the revolution into that of a hyena. It served, as Senor 
Carranza declared to Senor Aldo Baroni, as an unworthy 
party weapon for the desperate Constitutionalists when they 
saw that the public had no use for the Constitution, or for 
those who proclaimed it. 

Immediately after the recognition of this government as 
a de facto government, Senor Carranza proceeded to keep 
his promise of preserving the Mexican people independent 
of foreign capital, which had caused such grave damages to 
the fatherland, by sending Senor Luis Cabrera, Secretary 
of the Treasury of the de facto Government, to New York 
to negotiate a loan of $250,000,000 (for the affairs of state 
and the needs of the First Chief's friends) with the much- 
despised foreign banking corporations. The terms proposed 
were most humiliating and if they had been accepted, Mex- 
ico would have been placed in very much the same financial 
position as Egypt. Notwithstanding Senor Cabrera's read- 
iness to accept stipulated conditions, no matter how hum- 
bling they might be to the dignity of his country, the bankers 
explained, as the public knows from the New York press, 
that the First Chief did not possess the power to contract 
foreign loans of any kind in the name of the Mexican nation, 
that the title de facto of itself implied a government of 
short duration, one that, at best, was destined to exist only 
until a constitutional form of government could be estab- 
lished. 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 321 

Undaunted by Senor Cabrera's failure, Senor Antonio 
Manero appeared in the United States to try to negotiate a 
loan of $50,000,000. This no doubt further impressed the 
Mexican people with their enviable independence of foreign 
capital. From the American press we know the result of 
this transaction. The bankers stipulated as the first condi- 
tion that all custom house receipts were to be handed over 
to them, guarantees for the fulfillment of the contract being 
given by the United States Government, as has been the 
case in Haiti. The American press announced that Senor 
Manero accepted the conditions, and the holocaust was pre- 
vented only because the bankers saw, when the situation was 
more carefully studied, that the Mexican customs receipts 
would not equal for a long time to come even the sum neces- 
sary to cover the obligations solemnly contracted toward 
the holders of foreign government bonds, and this respon- 
sibility was recognized as indisputably legitimate by the 
Constitutionalist Government. Still undaunted, the de 
facto Government sent Senor Palavicini to New York 
to cooperate with the Mexican Ambassador, Senor Eliseo 
Arredondo, to obtain a loan of at least $10,000,000. Once 
more let us see what the New York press had to say. It 
informed the American public that the bankers had not hesi- 
tated to say to the Carranza representatives that it was not 
possible to lend a single dollar to Mexico, or to go surety 
for a single rifle or cartridge, as the country's bankruptcy 
was not only financial but moral, the Carranza Administra- 
tion having the well-established reputation of being an ad- 
ministration of insatiable thieves. 

Everything in the matter of loans undertaken by the de 
facto Government has been a failure. Even the mea culpa 
humbly offered to American bankers upon bended knee by 
the leaders of the movement to make Mexico financially in- 
dependent of the hateful and anti-patriotic foreign capital, 
failed. President Wilson's recognition of the de facto Gov- 



322 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ernment did not obtain for it one single dollar, but com- 
pletely stultified the Constitutionalists, who were already 
smacking their lips over the prospective haul. 

THE REGENERATION OF THE PEOPLE BY MEANS OF THE 
SCHOOL A FIASCO 

It is an indisputable fact that the Porfirian dictatorship 
established eleven thousand primary lay schools. It is also 
undeniable that although the people had the right to revolt 
against the dictatorship, the manner in which the revolt 
was executed, the frightful means employed, the criminal 
character of its ideals, the manifestations of hatred against 
everything that stands for civilization, the savage, prehistoric 
nature of its political passions, prove either that the people 
have derived no benefit whatever from these eleven thousand 
schools, or that their influence has been pernicious. The 
Argentenian writer, Foppa, commenting upon this deplor- 
able phenomenon, said that the uprising of the Mexican 
people was preeminently an uprising against the eleven 
thousand schools. From the fact that after twenty-five 
years of school attendance the Mexican people have obtained 
no better results than a savage revolution, compels one to 
denounce the schools or the people who attended them. One 
would naturally cry: No more schools because they are 
useless, if not actually productive of pernicious results. 

When a race loses completely the moral sense that has 
been formed by centuries of human customs and beliefs; 
when man unconsciously becomes the implacable enemy of 
his fellow men, something foreign even to the beast; when 
a people has lost the instinct of self-preservation, the love 
of the past, which is the true fatherland, and the respect it 
should have for the wisdom and beauty it possesses in the 
present; when it has lost faith in greatness, pity for human 
suffering, contact with the spiritual atmosphere; when it is 
atheistic, not because of scientific conviction, but because it 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 323 

is on a level with the brutes; when it kills for the sake of 
killing; when it hates because it is told to do so; when it 
attacks because it is thrust into the combat; when not even 
the gratification of vice makes life dear; when everything 
in it is a mixture of primitiveness and degeneration, then 
the school must fail, as liberty, religion, democracy, civiliza- 
tion and patriotism have failed; only the inexorable law of 
selection will not fail. 

A well-informed Cuban said to me: "In Cuba the 
schools gain daily in efficiency and the moral sense of the 
people degenerates. It cannot be doubted that the demo- 
cratic schools in my dear Cuba are not suited to form 
democrats." An English pedagogue has asserted that the 
school which has made the English what they are, perverts 
the Hindoos. A German pedagogue asserts that each nation 
should have a system of education suited to its moral and 
intellectual idiosyncrasies. In Mexico the German system 
has been tried on the Indians of Vera Cruz; the French on 
those of Puebla; the American on those of Guerrero; the 
Italian on those of Zacatecas, and the Ferrer system on those 
of Chihuahua. The inevitable outcome of this method has 
been the brutalizing of the Indians. If pedagogy does not 
take primal matter into consideration, education is not sci- 
ence but a scourge, the destroyer of customs, of religions, of 
ideals, leaving the perverted understanding of the inferior 
race to be filled with the teaching of the incomprehensible 
and the abstract. This is equivalent to attempting to teach 
an absolutely illiterate subject arithmetic by presenting to 
him as an introduction Laplace's Mechanics of the Heavens. 
There are diverse religions, because there are diverse races, 
just as there are diverse political constitutions, because there 
are diverse peoples, and as there is a diversity in the char- 
acter and extent of criminality and of everything that flows 
from the diversity of the sub-species developed within the 
human species. 



324 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

As we have seen, and as we shall continue to see, the rev- 
olutionary program has been a complete failure, without, 
however, affecting in any wise the progress of the revolu- 
tion. Although this is not the place to make a study of 
Mexican pedagogy, it is possible to measure the value of the 
popular school in Mexico by noting the decisive part taken 
by school teachers in the revolution. Luis Cabrera, the great 
intellect of Carrancism, as he has been called, is an ex- 
schoolmaster, as are also Antonio Villarreal, Constitutional- 
ist general, ex-governor of the state of Nuevo Leon and ex- 
president of the Convention of Aguascalientes ; Otilio Mon- 
tafio, Zapatista general and counsellor to the bandit ; Manuel 
Chao, Villista general and ex-governor of Chihuahua; Brau- 
lio Hernandez, supporter of the Vasquez revolution and ex- 
Secretary of Abraham Gonzalez, governor of Chihuahua; 
Federico Gurrion, the great Tehuantepec agitator who at- 
tempted to dismember the state of Oaxaca; Figueroa, revo- 
lutionary leader in the state of Guerrero; Jose Obregon, 
brother of Alvaro Obregon; Candido Navarro, Maderista 
leader, who started the revolution in Guanajuato in 191 1 
and invaded the state of San Luis Potosi; Praxedes Guer- 
rero, the socialist poet and general, who led the Mago- 
nista movement in Chihuahua; General Carrera Torres, the 
most celebrated Constitutionalist leader in the state of San 
Luis Potosi; Colonel David Berlanga, an orator and influen- 
tial agitator, and many other less important ones whose 
names I do not remember but who were representatives of 
the Maderista Congress of 191 2. 

Even if the schools in Mexico had been equal to the work 
of national regeneration, the present Government is not in 
a position to spend on schools even one-half what was spent 
under the dictatorship. In the City of Mexico and in the 
states oi Vera Cruz and Yucatan there is a certain show of 
scholarship which easily deceives fools who mistake card- 
board houses for marble palaces; but in the remainder of the 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 325 

states education is a farce without a trace of the nobility 
that should characterize it — a whitened sepulchre filled with 
dead men's bones. It will be a long time before Mexico, so 
far as education is concerned, will get back to where she was 
during the dictatorship of Diaz. I should call attention to 
the fact that neither General Diaz nor General Huerta was 
ever opposed to the development of public instruction; on 
the contrary, they furthered it as much as lay in their power, 
and the revolution can never lay claim to the institution of 
free, obligatory, lay schools as one of its achievements. If 
Mexican blood had to be drawn to further the cause of pub- 
lic education it might just as well have been done with 
leeches, because recourse to arms was totally unnecessary. 
It is a significant commentary on the intellectual equipment 
of the revolutionists that not one of them has thought of 
making the most trifling sacrifice for the furtherance of ed- 
ucation. 

THE PROSPERITY OF THE WORKING-MAN A FIASCO 

The revolution proclaimed the Socialist doctrine of a 
minimum wage to be fixed by the government, and the 
promise was fulfilled. This reform, however, has not 
brought about the desired effects. In Mexico the number of 
working-men dying of hunger because of lack of work is 
daily on the increase, as is also the number of those who are 
returning to their former masters asking for work, quite 
willing to forego the benefits of the government's reforms 
in their behalf, and to take any pay their employers may 
offer. Only in New Zealand has the government dared to 
fix a minimum rate of wage, and if the measure has not pro- 
duced the disasters predicted by economists, it is due to the 
remarkable prosperity of the English colony. There is no 
other country in the world which has taken upon itself the 
heavy responsibility of fixing by positive law the minimum 



326 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

rate of the day wage. Experts are of the opinion that from 
an economic standpoint it is an extremely dangerous measure. 
As our revolutionary intellectuals belong to the mediocre 
professional class they act more unwisely than the fool, who, 
knowing himself to be a fool, seeks the advice of those better 
informed than himself. A positive epidemic of political stu- 
pidity must be raging when such a measure as the fixing of 
the minimum wage is adopted in a country, which is on the 
brink of ruin, and in imperative need of the help of foreign 
capital to stave off starvation, to reconstruct its shattered 
fortunes and to enable it to enter once more into the ways 
of civilization and prosperity. The surest means to drive 
capital out of a country, unless it is in as flourishing a condi- 
tion as New Zealand, is undoubtedly the fixing of the mini- 
mum wage by the government. Foreign and national cap- 
italists, who have invested money in Mexico in enterprises 
which cannot easily be abandoned, have been forced to re- 
sign themselves to the violation of a great economic prin- 
ciple, that of subjecting wages to the law of supply and 
demand. But capital is being gradually withdrawn from 
Mexico, and the capitalist who in other times invested his' 
money there, creating remunerative work, is well aware to- 
day that the country offers the poorest of all investments. 

Such a situation is disastrous for Mexican industry, and 
especially for the working-man. For him the only alterna- 
tive is to die of hunger or join the Carrancista army, to be 
paid the equivalent of the lowest day wage, in depreciated 
paper money. Even this is precarious because the nation 
cannot support much longer an army greater than its 
strength, which is constantly and rapidly diminishing. 

OTHER REFORMS ALSO A FIASCO 

Senor Jose N. Macias explains to us the remainder of the 
great reforms which are to effect the redemption of the 
Mexican people. These are: the freedom of municipalities; 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 327 

the independence of the judiciary; the law of divorce and the 
working-man's compensation law. 

The so-called reform granting independence to municipal- 
ities is nothing more than a long-discarded measure which 
was found stored away somewhere in the political ware- 
house, thrown out because of its worthlessness. In 1861 mu- 
nicipal government was established throughout the Republic, 
based upon autonomy which was almost equal to sovereignty. 
The result was disastrous for the great majority of the 
towns. The municipal presidents, treasurers, and almost all 
the aldermen began appropriating the municipal revenues, 
leaving the towns without lighting systems, without schools, 
without public charities, without food for prisoners, who 
were discharged in order to cut out this expense, without 
hygienic improvements of any kind or even the indispensable 
repairs needed to keep roads and public thoroughfares in a 
passable condition. The infuriated inhabitants had recourse 
to the central government of their respective states, petition- 
ing that the municipalities be deprived of their financial au- 
tonomy and that, with regard to receipts as well as expendi- 
tures, their accounts should be subject to the revision and 
approbation of the State Treasurer. 

With regard to the taxes, only five out of the three thou- 
sand and more municipal treasurers escaped being denounced 
before the district judges as having appropriated the public 
funds under their control. It was not the Porfirian dictator- 
ship that deprived the municipalities of the right to help 
themselves to the public funds, but the sovereign will of the 
towns, publicly expressed many years before General Diaz 
organized his dictatorship. The failure of the free munici- 
palities was one of the many fiascos which ha^e overtaken 
the Mexicans in their demented attempt to govern them- 
selves democratically. 

The independence of the judiciary can only be assured — 
and even then not absolutely — by establishing irremovable 



328 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

judgeships, so long as the incumbent's conduct is exemplary; 
or, at least, by making the term of the chief justice double 
that of the President. In 1893 the Cientificos struggled to 
institute constitutional reforms in favor of the irremova- 
bility of the Federal chief justices. The bill was held up in 
the Senate by General Diaz after it had passed the House, 
and it was Don Francisco Madero who later fought this 
reform, forcing the Senate to reject it in 191 1, when it was 
proposed for discussion. It is evident, then, that it was the 
revolution which gave this great constitutional reform its 
death blow in 191 1. And after such an exhibition of polit- 
ical depravity as this, we are told, in 19 15, that it was nec- 
essary to destroy the nation in order to enable the revolution 
to impose the necessary reform in regard to the independence 
of the judiciary! 

The divorce law will serve many purposes, other than that 
of conferring happiness upon the poor. It will not redeem 
them from their misery, neither will it alter their mode of liv- 
ing. According to the statistics of the Civil Register of the 
Federal District only nineteen out of every hundred births 
registered are legitimate; and if we take into account that the 
higher classes represent approximately twenty per cent of 
the population, and that almost all the progeny of that class 
is legitimate, it follows that almost the entire lower class is 
of illegitimate origin. Since marriage, owing to lack of mo- 
rality among the people, is not considered necessary, a di- 
vorce law would appear to be more or less of a superfluity. 
On the other hand, in almost all the marriages contracted in 
Mexico the woman is a Catholic and, as a general thing, 
firm in adhering to the precepts of the Church which forbid 
divorce. Moreover, in Mexican society a divorced woman is 
looked upon in very much the same light as a concubine, and 
it will be many years before the divorce law will be the law 
of our social life. One must be utterly bereft of reason to 
imagine for a moment that the institution of the divorce law 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 329 

in Mexico merits one fraction of the sacrifices the revolu- 
tion has inflicted upon the Mexican people. 

The working-man's compensation law is not an unheard- 
of proposition in Mexico, nor is it being advanced now for 
the first time. General Bernardo Reyes framed a good law 
covering accidents to working-men during the dictatorship 
of General Diaz. In 1908, Senor Ramon Corral, then Sec- 
retary of the Interior, commissioned me to draft a complete 
plan for him of the code governing the working-man's com- 
pensation law, in so far as it had any bearing upon economic 
questions. I accepted the task and had almost completed my 
work when the Madero revolution broke out. While Con- 
gress was in session, from September 15 to December 15, 
191 1, bills fairly rained in concerning the working-man's 
compensation law, child labor, unsanitary working condi- 
tions, working-men's protective associations, the establish- 
ment of savings banks, and all manner of laws favorable to 
the laboring classes that the government of the most civ- 
ilized industrial nations have adopted in their favor. In 
September, 191 2, the triumph of the revolution was assured, 
as the Madero faction had an overwhelming majority in the 
House. The Catholic faction, representing the minority in 
the House, was in favor of the enactment of a working- 
man's compensation law, covering all the legitimate claims 
of the working class, with all the socialist concessions that 
have been granted to them even in the countries that are 
most strongly influenced by the doctrine of individualism. 

Why did this overwhelming Maderista majority not pass 
the reforms proposed for the betterment of the condition of 
the working class? Senor Ramon Prida has given the cor- 
rect answer. He says: "Once the representatives were in- 
stalled, the House took up its work, or to be more exact, in- 
augurated a campaign of vilification such as has never been 
witnessed in any other parliamentary body. During the reg- 
ular session; that is, from September i6th to December 15th, 



330 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

nothing for the good of the country was accomplished by the 
House. It looked as though the representatives had come 
together for no other purpose than that of vilifying each 
other and absentees, who could not defend themselves. The 
chairmen who were elected during September, October, No- 
vember and December were absolutely impotent to keep the 
ultra-radicals in check. And to make matters worse, the 
Government, notwithstanding the unedifying spectacle pre- 
sented by this body of legislators, called for an extra session 
of Congress, which, convening in the latter part of Decem- 
ber, was in session until the overthrow of the Madero Gov- 
ernment. 

"Individually there were many intelligent, educated and 
even truly patriotic representatives, but the collective work 
of the body was devoid of effects, and the isolated efforts of 
the few were lost in that turbulent mob which Senor Gustavo 
Madero tried in vain to hold in check."^ 

Senor Prida's words are confirmed by Senor Fernandez 
Giiell who, as will be remembered, was a fervid Maderista 
and is now an impassioned Carrancista, so much so that he 
assures us that Don Venustiano Carranza is "cast in the 
mould of immortality," and that he shed "a molten tear" 
upon Madero's grave. He says: "One of the first acts of 
the new representatives was to raise their salaries from the 
previous two hundred and fifty pesos monthly to five hun- 
dred pesos. Nothing was proposed with a view to arrang- 
ing the difficulties with Zapata in the south, or to solve the 
problem in the north. The Maderista element rested on its 
laurels as though contact with power had benumbed its en- 
ergies. Huerta himself seemed less brilliant and persuasive 
than upon other occasions." ^ 

That same revolutionary Maderista majority, which styled 
itself progressive, which through fear, cupidity, shameless- 

1 Ramon Prlda, De la Dictadura a la Anarquia, p 409. 

2 Fernandez Giiell, Episodios de la Revolucion Mexicana, p. 162. 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 331 

ness or its inherent capacity for treason, had sanctioned the 
Huerta coup, had opportunities, when it was converted into 
a grovelling Huerta instrument, to introduce bills, with 
Huerta's decided support, for the betterment of the condi- 
tion of the poor, and was morally obliged to pass the bill 
introduced into the House during the Huerta administration 
by Seilor Toribio Esquivel Obregon, Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, asking in the Chief Executive's name for an appropria- 
tion of several million pesos to buy lands from private indi- 
viduals to be distributed among the poor. The solution of 
the agrarian question, as Senor Carranza pretended to under- 
stand it in 1 91 5, was formerly initiated by General Huerta 
before the revolutionary House of Representatives, the ma- 
jority of whose members were unworthy to represent the na- 
tion. 

I concede that among the military and civilian revolu- 
tionists there are many who are in good faith, many who 
have worked, some who have even made sacrifices, for the 
realization of possible and impossible ideals. Unfortunately 
for the Mexican people, these representative men are not at 
the head of the movement; on the contrary, almost all the 
leaders are representatives of an old element, emanating from 
the cancerous core of Reyism. The revolution will have to 
continue until it produces great moral effects which will 
eliminate all this decayed political vegetation and give the 
new element a chance to reveal itself in all its power, pro- 
vided that this also be not of the same category. 

THE revolution's FINANCIAL FIASCO 

The Diaz financial administration, directed by Senor 
Limantour, was a model of morality, method, science and 
results achieved. The revolution declared it a national 
scourge and destroyed it, only to replace it with a peculating, 
disordered, miserable, rapacious, inept substitute. In order 



332 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

to prove the truth of this declaration it is only necessary, 
among other facts, to call attention to one. Every bond is- 
sued by the Diaz Government, of any kind vi^hatsoever, was 
quoted, if it were redeemable in gold, above par in all the 
great markets of the world; the paper money issued by the 
de facto Government is worth at present two cents gold for 
one hundred cents paper (Havana quotation, March 22, 
19 1 6). These data unquestionably reveal that the de facto 
Government will not be long in swelling the number of the 
victims; its pulse can no longer be felt even with the stetho- 
scope. 

In a few words I shall present the financial status of 
Mexico : 

Annual Expenditures 

For the interest and payment of the recognized 
consolidated debt and the probable floating 
debt up to date $45,000,000 gold 

Bureaucratic salaries 40,000,000 

Estimate for army expenses at the rate of $0.50 
gold per head, further estimate for chiefs, 
officers, equipment, not counting the graft 
necessary for the maintenance of the de facto 
Government 54,000,000 " 

Indispensably need to reconstruct and main- 
tain railroads 10,000,000 " 

Total $149,000,000 gold 

I do not believe that the present Federal receipts aggre- 
gate $30,000,000, notwithstanding the fact that the de facto 
Government counts as the chief source of revenue the whole- 
sale robbery of the Yucatecan planters, who are obliged to 
deliver, under pain of confiscation and destruction of their 
maguey fields, one-half of the integral value of their produc- 
tion. The commission to regulate the price of henequen has 
been converted into the commission to continue the spolia- 
tion of the Yucatecan planters, who are the producers of the 



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DISASTER 333 

valuable fiber. We see, then, that the basis of the Carran- 
cista finances, true to the principle of the glorious revolu- 
tion, is nothing but barefaced graft. With regard to the 
state finances, a complete state of bankruptcy exists in all. 
Each governor has faculties to dispose of all the state rev- 
enues as he may see fit, for the public good or for that of his 
own private purse. Needless to say, the good of the private 
purse predominates. 

During the dictatorship, even when one-third of the gov- 
ernors were dishonest, the dictator never permitted a state 
of public bankruptcy to exist, and, consequently, every one 
marched in good order, paying employees and meeting all his 
obligations. Some of the states, notably Yucatan, Guana- 
juato, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Queretaro and 
Nuevo Leon, had considerable reserve funds. To-day every- 
thing has disappeared; a universal state of total bankruptcy 
exists, which will not be remedied for many years. Mean- 
while, the bureaucracies imbibe miasmic poisons, live upon 
typhus, and, bereft of everything but their just indignation, 
have nothing to look forward to but greater sufferings until 
they reach the final, fatal denouement. 



CHAPTER II 
THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 

MACHIAVELLI AND CARRANZA 

THE author of The Prince has given simple, exact 
rules which will insure the success of an "iron 
hand" administration in countries where it is needed. 
Machiavelli separates the people into two classes: First, the 
vast, peaceful, servile class which has the power to revolt, 
because servility does not preclude the right possessed by 
every being to defend himself when the need arises; second, 
the politicians, engrossed in their task of obtaining control 
of the supreme power so as to mercilessly exploit the people. 
The generator of public opinion is the people, even when 
it is a servile people; and public opinion is always sovereign 
even when its influence produces a different result from 
that which emanates from a free people. Public opinion 
finally ends by terrorizing tyrants, spreading panic among 
their supporters, bringing about their defection, and induc- 
ing them to take vengeance against the man they have up- 
held. The "iron hand" should guard above all against 
arousing the odium of public opinion which, after the coup 
de ?nain, is the favorite political weapon for overthrowing 
dictators. 

The "iron hand," in order to win and keep the good opin- 
ion of the masses, who justly demand that they be governed 
in conformity with the state of civilization they possess, 
should protect them against the oppression of malefactors; 
should respect civil rights, at least in that proportion which 
the people have heretofore enjoyed in conformity with their 

334 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 335 

traditions; should strive to supply the people with an easy 
means of earning a livelihood, vv^hich can best be done 
by furthering the economic progress of the country, and, 
finally, should establish a sound financial administration and 
see that at least tolerable justice be meted out by the courts, 
especially to the low^er classes. This is all that is necessary 
to insure for a dictator their adhesion, which is the best de- 
fense against sudden coups. In fact, if we go back to the 
Roman Empire, which existed for three hundred years and 
which employed regicide and militarism as the means of 
eliminating tyrants, we shall find that seven emperors, 
Augustus, Tiberius, Adrian, Trajan, Antoninus, Marcus 
Aurelius and Pertinax — the latter the only exception to the 
rule in point of length or reign — collectively held the povv^r 
for more than half of the three hundred years of the 
empire's existence. These seven emperors merited the sup- 
port of public opinion, whereas the other thirty-eight were 
put out of the way by force, as a rule, by assassination. 

Let us see how Carrancism stands in the light of public 
opinion. Instead of protecting the people against male- 
factors, it has given the latter its assured protection against 
any resistance the people might ofFer. The people were dis- 
armed and thus made the helpless victims of this criminal 
band. The civil rights of a people demand respect for religion 
and private property ; the inviolability of personal liberty ; the 
sacredness of the home; public and private morals; the free- 
dom to work, and respect for the nation's good name. Car- 
rancism has disregarded all these. It has been the implac- 
able persecutor of the Catholic religion, almost exclusively 
the religion of the Mexican people; it recognizes outside its 
own ranks no private property rights, either among the rich 
or among the poor; it violates all personal liberty, every 
one, from its point of view, being the slave of the armed 
bandits of the north ; it disregards public and private morals, 
all women being the prey of its lust; it has substituted 



336 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

for the free right to work, the "free right" to be a Car- 
rancista soldier; it has dragged the name of Mexico in the 
mire, until to-day the foreign nations want the United States 
to intervene by force of arms, and, if necessary, wipe Mexico 
as a nation off the face of the map. During the latter years 
of the Diaz dictatorship, Mexico had attained a high place 
in the estimation of the nations of the world, as our Cen- 
tennial Celebration in 1910 proved; Carrancism has re- 
duced it to its present plight. 

Instead of building up the resources of the country, Car- 
rancism has countenanced the wanton destruction of prop- 
erty and of the capital that made it possible for the people 
to provide for their own support by work. Instead of estab- 
lishing a sound financial administration and a tolerable ad- 
ministration of justice, it has based its finances upon theft, 
as, for example, the coercing of the henequen planters in 
Yucatan and the cotton planters in Torreon, the stealing of 
cattle on the frontier, and the spoliation of everything else 
worth taking in other parts of the Republic. At the pres- 
ent time in every newspaper article, pamphlet, book, or ad- 
dress relative to Mexico we find the truth — that is, that 
the practical principles of the Mexican revolution, implac- 
ably carried out, have been vengeance and theft. 

As humanity progressed the "iron hand" had to progress 
also, and the methods that held good in Machiavelli's time 
do not hold good now. In Latin-America it has become a 
fixed principle that every dictatorship, however strict, should 
respect the representative democratic form, and this prin- 
ciple has given rise to certain passive political rights. Dur- 
ing the strictest Caesarian epoch of General Diaz's dictator- 
ship all were at liberty to declare themselves anti-Porfiristas, 
and no one was molested so long as his attitude did not take 
the form of an actual rebellious and seditious newspaper 
campaign. The most notable example of this policy is that 
of the historian and politician, Don Fernando Iglesias Cal- 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 337 

deron, who was General Diaz's political enemy for thirty- 
three years. During that time he wrote in a serious and 
dignified vein everything that he wished, and was never in 
any way punished or persecuted. Sefior Iglesias Calderon 
exercised active political rights, and those who exercised 
passive rights, manifesting simply dissatisfaction, were never 
molested. The Diaz dictatorship never punished or perse- 
cuted any writer who criticized the Administration in its 
administrative, economic, legal or even political aspect. 
Senor Luis Cabrera, the most implacable of the Carrancistas, 
enjoyed this liberty under the dictatorship. In Mexico to- 
day neither the Mexican nor the foreigner is allowed the 
passive political right of not being an adherent of Carran- 
cism. He is obliged under pain of arrest, confiscation of 
property and even death to be a Carrancista. Not to be 
one is equivalent to being the revolution's enemy, and that 
revolution does not tolerate enemies but aims to foment the 
greatest amount of hatred against them and even to ex- 
terminate them. 

The Carrancista Government is a government of terror 
of the most repugnant type and of the species most abhorrent 
to twentieth-century civilization. There is nothing new or 
unusual in this assertion. All humanity bears witness to it. 

But under no consideration is the revolution to be de- 
famed. It is wise, it is reflective, it is just! The Mexican 
people declared tyrants the sixtj'--four viceroys sent by Spain! 
In reality not one of them merited the title, and most of 
them were distinguished for their honesty and kindness. The 
Mexican people declared tj^ants the loyal and energetic 
Victoria, the weak and likable Guerrero, the honest Busta- 
mante, the just Arista, the reasonable and moderate Juarez, 
the exact Lerdo de Tejada, and General Diaz, who, al- 
though a despot, deserved that the Mexican people should 
accept my estimate of his administration: "A government 
with a minimum of terror and a maximum of kindness." 



338 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Nevertheless, on May 24, 191 1, when he took refuge in his 
home surrounded by some of the members of his own family, 
and one or two friends, who endeavored to relieve his moral 
and physical suffering, although the weight of his eighty 
years pressed heavily upon him, although the heart that 
throbbed in his weather-beaten breast was the same that had 
made him a hero in a war that stemmed a foreign invasion, 
although his country was indebted to him for more bless- 
ings than curses, the filthy, political rabble placed itself at 
the head of a ferocious mob, seeking the blood of an old 
man whom history, notwithstanding his faults, will absolve. 
But the revolution is wise and just; we must bend the 
knee and submit to its decrees! As the people have ruth- 
lessly attacked eminent men, characterizing them as tyrants 
and tearing them to pieces without mercy, justice demands 
that these people should get a lesson, and be made to under- 
stand what real tyranny is. Diaz was overthrown. Ma- 
dero, kind and honorable, was also declared a tyrant. 
Huerta appeared, like a somber Caesar of Rome's decadent 
days. He was discarded and the revolution produced Car- 
ranza, a thousand times more tyrannical than Huerta. 
Carranza failing to satisfy the people, the revolution — the 
supreme teacher — ^will impose Obregon, who, in turn, will 
be harsher than Carranza. The revolution had destined the 
nation for the Cassarism of Villa, and it was what the in- 
surgent class deserved. The people are beginning now to 
know what real tyranny is, and if they survive they will 
know the measure of deference, respect, and kindness that 
should be shown to really eminent rulers. There should 
be changes in the administration, it is true, because power 
enervates, but it should not be done with infamy and dis- 
honor. A patriot should be removed without sacrificing 
patriotism. A government based upon terror is a weak 
government, because, sooner or later, it ends by terrorizing 
even the tyrant and his paid assassins. It is evident that 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 339 

this terror has already taken possession of Senor Venustiano 
Carranza. He cannot remain long in one place; he travels 
not for amusement, but to flee from himself; he is beginning 
to be obsessed with the thought of himself. The blood that 
has been spilt in his name makes him believe that his own 
will soon be called for; the tears of that people whom he 
offered to make happy may be converted from one moment 
to another into bullets to annihilate him; the ruins of his 
country curse him as they crumble to pieces, and even the 
echo of misfortune and pain has for him the significance of 
the fatal summons. His terrors have been further increased 
by the ominous glances of fifteen million Mexicans which 
say to him: "That is right! Continue also to be a traitor 
to your country!" 

Sefior Carranza's supremacy over his rivals in the pres- 
ent chaos and anarchy that reigns in Mexico can be easily 
explained. In Mexico politics are anti-patriotic, being sim- 
ply the ebullition of personalism. Zapata is not a likely 
subject for the development of personalism. He has no 
wealth with which to buy friends and partisans in propor- 
tion with what he can distribute. He is the real apostle. 
He despoils the rich for the benefit of the poor. He con- 
fiscates plantations, not to add to his own private property, 
but to divide and distribute them among the poor farmers, 
fulfilling the promises he has given. His party has no sine- 
cures to offer. It will not tolerate the violation of the civil 
rights of the people. There is morality, justice, order, 
rights to be respected and duties to be fulfilled. The In- 
dian follower of Zapata is not his slave, as Sefior Palavicini 
is Carranza's, and as Sefior Rafael Zubaran will be Obre- 
gon's, when the latter believes the opportune moment has 
come to betray his chief. Zapatism being what it is, a truly 
barbaric, Aztec organization, cannot attract the rotten poli- 
ticians of the intellectual proletariat or the Constitutionalist 
banditti. 



340 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Following the lead of the French Revolution, under the 
protection of the Villistas and the Zapatistas, a rare political 
entity — the Sovereign National Convention — was formed. 
In a country where there is no strength outside of the policy 
governed by personalism, this was destined to fail ignomini- 
ously and, as a conventional government is the most imper- 
sonal of all governments, it could hope to have but few 
partisans, and provisional ones at that. 

If one of the First Chief's friends wins a battle, he gives 
him one, two, three or more million pesos (paper), a fine 
country house, valued at no less than one million dollars 
gold; ten or twelve town residences in the most fashionable 
quarter, and one hundred women, chosen from among the 
most beautiful and attractive of the Republic. A conven- 
tion expresses its appreciation by a vote of thanks, a medal, 
a diploma, or at most it may decree that the victor's name 
be inscribed in letters of gold upon the tablet in the conven- 
tion hall. The supreme reward is to declare the hero de- 
serving of his country's consideration, leaving him, however, 
to die of hunger or to live upon the alms of the friends who 
flee from him when the opposing party gets into power and 
brands him a traitor, meriting the opprobrium of humanity. 
A flatterer may hang around a convention for twenty years 
without even getting a letter-carrier's job out of it. Imper- 
sonal governments are not susceptible to the blandishments 
that turn the heads of personal rulers. 

On the other hand, conventions, like all sovereign assem- 
blages, are merciless in decreeing death penalties, confisca- 
tion of property, and the most atrocious vengeance against 
the superior men of the nation, because, as all assemblages 
are formed from the mediocre political element, the assem- 
bly's enemies are the eminent men of the nation and, by a 
natural inference, necessarily the country's enemies as well. 

Personalism does not enter much into Villa's make-up, 
because it is debatable whether or not he is a person. If 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 341 

he is, he is not one whose friendship can be counted upon. 
Studying Villa's conduct, it is evident that not one of the 
intellectuals who surrounded him ever had any great in- 
fluence over him. Villa's favorites were always the most 
terrible of the bandits: Fierro, Rodriquez, Urbina and 
Banda. In Villa's circle no one was sure of his life because 
not only the chief himself, but any of his favorites, had the 
right personally to take the life of any one who displeased 
him, no matter how insignificant the cause might be. Villa 
gave plantations, houses, jewelry, and money, but later on 
he would take them back to bestow them upon some new 
favorite. There is not a single one of Villa's favorites who 
really became rich and retained for any length of time a re- 
spected and remunerative position. Any tale carried by a 
busybody — and scandal mongers abound in these political 
coteries — was enough to cost the defenseless victim his head. 

Senor Carranza, on the contrary, is an ideal exponent of 
personalism. He is constant to his friends, slow to give 
credence to talebearers, generous almost past belief in recom- 
pensing services, and above all in rewarding adulation. He 
pays his debts of gratitude at a high rate of interest, and 
is constant toward the faithful. In a word, and to use a 
Mexican expression, Carranza is what the personal politicians 
call "un amigo pare]o" (a friend on the level) ; and for 
politicians with great and unbridled ambition he possesses 
the advantage of being as manageable as an organ-grinder's 
monkey. 

The amount expended by Senor Carranza upon his friends 
and partisans has been simply enormous. In seventeen 
months, deducting only what has been spent upon armament 
and munitions, and the small amount distributed among the 
lower bureaucracy, he has given to his friends more than 
700,000,000 pesos paper, produced by his unique little 
money-making machine, besides $20,000,000 gold, stolen 
from the Yucatecan planters, $5,000,000 gold from the cot- 



342 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

ton growers, and $3,000,000 gold, from the oil companies. 
Great herds of cattle, enormous quantities of hides, cof- 
fee and every kind of merchandise, houses and plantations, 
valued at not less than 300,000,000 pesos, and all the state 
and municipal revenues, have also been distributed among 
them, his friends being constituted absolute owners of the 
lives, honor and revenues of the people. I do not believe 
that among modern rulers, even including those of the lux- 
urious oriental nations, there ever has been a sultan, kalif, 
emperor, great lama, great chief or great Latin-American 
liberator who has given more wealth to his partisans 
than Senor Venustiano Carranza has distributed among his 
friends, and who at the same time has permitted them to 
commit as great a number of crimes and acts worthy only of 
irrational brutes. 

It is quite evident that Senor Carranza has not assimi- 
lated the dictatorial method. Terror and corruption, as is 
well known, are the infallible and indispensable arms of all 
Caesarian governments. But the indispensable condition for 
Cffisarism is a Caesar, and in the very nature of things he 
must be supreme. No Cassar or dictator, worthy of the 
name, would consent to be the lap-dog of his favorites. In 
modern times Cromwell and Napoleon I were generous pro- 
tectors of their partisans, but never consented to be bossed 
by them. Juarez and Diaz never had favorites and were 
always their own masters. The chief who permits himself 
to be bossed can never govern, and serves only as the instru- 
ment which makes the public service the mistress of the 
military, as well as of the frock-coated soldiery. 

Senor Carranza has not understood that terror is a means 
applied to politicians by governments when corruption has 
failed to subjugate them, or when they put an unheard-of 
price upon their submission. He has applied terror not to 
the politicians of his party, but to the peaceful, honest, hard- 
working people, who would be satisfied with a few civil 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 343 

rights which would allow them to live as frugally or mis- 
erably as they have lived for centuries past. 

The generosity that has created for Don Venustiano Car- 
ranza such a powerful party of personal adherents will lead 
ultimately to disorder, and the collapse will precipitate Senor 
Carranza and his partisans into the abyss; that is, if the 
latter have not already turned upon him and betrayed him 
in conformity with the code of honor binding politicians in 
general, and those of Latin-America in particular. 

Without the abundant issue of paper money the revolu- 
tion would not have attracted to itself this immense follow- 
ing. However, the issue of such paper money is not an 
inexhaustible resource. When those who employ it do not 
know how to manage it and to put on the brakes in time, 
a complete state of bankruptcy ensues, absolutely destruc- 
tive of political and social order, reacting principally upon 
the authors of the catastrophe. The paper money has gone 
down as low as two cents gold for every one hundred cents 
paper (March 25, 1916). One short step more and Car- 
rancism will plunge into the dark, fathomless abyss, as a 
torpedoed ocean liner heaves and disappears beneath the 
waves. 

As Seiior Carranza has not been a disciplinarian, but a 
coddler of bandits, in order to secure at least their nominal 
recognition of him as their First Chief, with the waning of 
his material prosperity — the source of his power — he will 
have to flee from his own coterie in order to escape being 
put to death, according to the rules of the Barbary pirates: 
"When the captain is of no further use, he is to be hung 
to the top of the main mast." 

A COUNTRY HONEYCOMBED BY THEFT 

Taking into consideration the pharisaical nature of the 
de facto Government, no possible rational motive can be 



344 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

found for supposing that it can survive more than six months 
longer. 

Putting aside the great events that bear some relation to 
historical precedents, and coming dovi^n to the level of home 
politics, the conviction of the impossibility of the perma- 
nancy of the Carranza dictatorship is forcibly driven home. 

At present there are two great political parties in Mexico, 
irreconcilable and not to be dominated, so far as the fierce 
conflict of cupidity and baseness is concerned : first, those who 
have stolen much and who want to steal more; second, those 
who have not had the opportunity to steal and are fairly 
rabid to join those sordid ranks. The latter embraces also 
those who have only been able to steal moderately, or those 
who, having stolen much, have squandered the fruits of 
their spoliation. The words of the French publicist, whom 
I have previously quoted, are realized in Mexico now as 
never before: "The political problem in Latin-America is 
fundamentally a problem of public thieving." The Mexican 
political problem is fundamentally, formally, absolutely, rel- 
atively, in its length, breadth and depth, in every respect in 
fact, a problem of public thieving, because the revolution has 
put the stamp of its approval upon it, making both public 
and private theft a respected, sacred, political and patriotic 
proceeding. In Mexico to steal is to live; not to steal is to 
fall into the pit dug for cowards and honest men, and the 
hope of stealing is implanted as deeply in the soul of the 
revolutionist as the hope of heaven in the Christian's soul. 

The dictatorship of Senor Carranza seems to count upon 
but few propitious circumstances. Napoleon I defined 
Cassarism as "the struggle of the ambition of one against the 
ambition of all." The "ambition of all" has passed and is 
passing through a tremendous crisis in Mexico. During the 
Diaz dictatorship the country's problem of public thieving 
was, on the whole, satisfactorily solved in favor of the na- 
tion. There was corruption but, as I have proved, it was less 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 345 

in Mexico than in any other Latin-American country, the 
Diaz administration being a model in this respect. 

The Reyista press aroused the envy of the middle class, 
especially that of the educated proletariat, and the general, 
accepted concept of General Diaz's Government was that 
it w^as a band of thieves, lead by Limantour. Limantour 
was never a thief, and many persons, Mexicans as well as 
foreigners, are now convinced that this is true. He ener- 
getically fought and prevented almost all the dishonest 
schemes projected by "patriots"; he waged war unto death 
against the most dexterous and obstinate thieves; he ren- 
dered incalculable services to his country; and, nevertheless, 
his large estates in Mexico have been confiscated. A plot 
was on foot to assassinate him when Madero triumphed, and, 
even to-day, if he were captured he would be executed at 
once, the only grievance against him being that he did not 
permit those to steal who to-day are thirsting for gold and 
for vengeance against those who dared to hold back this 
army of Constitutionalist rapacity. 

But the revolution is great and noble and we must once 
more bend the knee and kiss its hand, that blood-stained hand 
that is licked by a miserable and starving nation ! The revolu- 
tion has avenged Limantour, the dictator, his administration. 
It was the well-paid, well-fed, lazy bureaucratic middle class, 
assured of a roseate future in view of the abundant vintage 
to be pressed from the juicy budget, that was most indignant 
against the imaginary thieves. The bureaucrat of those days 
was the type of the lotus eater, inviolable in his blissful 
egotism. The bureaucrat of to-day is an emaciated, mangy 
spectator of universal spoliation, of veritable public and 
private theft, of that theft which swallows bureaucratic sal- 
aries and which hourly submerges the bureaucracy more and 
more in the terror of abject want, and brings it nearer to 
death by starvation. And to think that in the decadent days 
of the dictatorship. General Diaz should have countenanced 



346 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the protests, the hypocritical judgments, the paroxisms of 
outraged virtue, hysterical envy and wounded patriotism, and 
all that program of vilification which was carried on against 
the Cientificos! To-day theft is the right of the conqueror, 
the recompense of his crimes, the only constitutional law, 
and the envious, the honorable, the poor, the rich and above 
all the cowards, must do homage to it under pain of death. 
To-day mock virtue does not parade, campaigns of vilifica- 
tion are not inaugurated, nor do the bells of public opinion 
peal forth denunciations of the dishonest Cientificos. To-day 
one must die a cowardly death, overcome by the anaesthesia 
of profound abjection, or gagged by the filthy hands of ban- 
dits. There can be no doubt that the revolution has been 
justice-dealing. Against the immense imaginary theft of the 
dictatorship, we have the barefaced, noisy, feverish, brutal, 
prehistoric robbery of Constitutionalism. The calumniators 
of the Porfirian Administration are satisfied; the revolution 
has been an excellent teacher. Let us ponder its lessons ! 

During the Porfirian regime there was only one key to 
the paradise of political theft, and that was the consumma- 
tion of dirty business transactions by means of the contract 
system, the system that in Cuba is colloquially called "los 
chivos" (the goats). Theft was possible only by means of 
extortion. To-day peculation is the bloom to be plucked 
from the administration, without prejudicing the normal de- 
velopment of the contract system. Formerly theft had pene- 
trated into the judiciary by means of the coercion of higher 
authority. To-day coercion is not needed to convert the 
courts into robbing machines. In all civil or penal judg- 
ments the judge asks which of the contending parties is a 
Cientifico ; that is, which has the greatest amount of portable 
wealth and, therefore, the greater responsibility as the people's 
enemy. Once this important legal point has been settled, the 
Cientifico is immediately condemned. Such is the Roque 
Estrada code. To-day all private property is under the law 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 347 

of confiscation or supervision. Everything that has any eco- 
nomic, moral or intellectual value is listed as subject to con- 
fiscation or destruction. This admirable anarchistic ma- 
chine, consumer of the last cent, the last honest man, the 
last trace of social life, is called pre-Constitutionalism, and 
vv^as, it seems, invented by Senor Luis Cabrera. 

The position of a dictator in the face of this pre-Constitu- 
tionalist machine can now be understood. This patriotic in- 
vention has increased ambition one hundredfold. Every 
bandit leader, w^ith his following of frock-coated bandits, 
knows that if he triumphs he will enjoy a delicious period 
of pre-Constitutionalism in which he and his friends can 
help themselves to everything there is to take, assassinate all 
their personal enemies, and even their troublesome friends; 
and, happiness once secured, the era of Constitutionalism will 
dawn to consolidate all the rapine of pre-Constitutionalism 
and absolve from its responsibilities. Mexican politics have 
been renewed, reformed, intensified, strictly adapted to a 
chronic and mortal state of anarchy, and all this marvellous 
transformation is due to the invention of pre-Constitutional- 
ism! 

ANOTHER GRAVE OBSTACLE CONFRONTING THE CARRANZA 
DICTATORSHIP 

The inti'epid and honorable Porfirista general, Senor Do- 
nato Guerra, with the unreserved frankness of a soldier, de- 
clared in September, 1872, when Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, 
a civilian, was raised to the presidency by process of law, that 
the army would never tolerate as president of Mexico any 
one but a military man, because the fatherland being heroic 
only a hero could govern it. Consequently, whether they 
liked it or not, the Mexican people would have to be ruled 
by the patriotic laws of heroism. This doctrine agrees with 
that of the Colombian military president, who said: "These 



348 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

countries (the Latin-American nations) belong to the 
strong." 

From 1 82 1 to 1914 there have been only three Constitu- 
tionalist civilian presidents in Mexico: Benito Juarez, Se- 
bastian Lerdo de Tejada and Francisco L Madero. All 
three had the army for their deadly enemy. Juarez died be- 
fore his overthrow was accomplished, but the downfall of 
both Lerdo de Tejada and Madero was brought about by 
the army. Bearing this national tradition in mind, it seems 
almost impossible that Seiior Venustiano Carranza, who is 
not a military man, can hold for long the loyalty of the 
Constitutionalist army; all the more as this army thinks it- 
self more militarj'^ than the German army, and, like the 
latter, does not understand that it could have a civilian for 
a Kaiser, The Constitutionalist army resents not only that 
a civilian should be president of the Republic, but that he 
should presume to be anything more than a dragoon's boot- 
black or a mule in the artillery train. The Constitutionalist 
revolution was launched especially against the extreme mil- 
itarism represented by General Victoriano Huerta, but, as 
in this redemptory revolution all the reforms conceived by the 
revolutionists have been fiascos, it turns out that the redemp- 
tion from militarism has produced a reactionary militarism 
bordering upon that of Attila's time. Under these condi- 
tions the dictatorship of a civilian of Senor Carranza's stamp 
is just as logical as the successful operation of an ice plant in 
the sun. 

Senor Carranza bears the title of General decreed by him- 
self and even by the revolutionary formulary, but neither 
military men nor civilians, so far as that is concerned, con- 
sider him a military man. The best proof of this assertion, 
which implies such grave consequences, is that Senor Car- 
ranza's most ardent admirers, who are trying by every pos- 
sible means to heighten his prestige, never speak of him as 
a great military hero. Quoting from his panegyrists we find 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 349 

the following: "He is the man of the revolution" (Pala- 
vicini) ; "The living symbol of the aspirations of the down- 
trodden masses" (R. Pesqueira) ; "The prototype of the re- 
formers"; "The leading man of Mexico" (J. N. Macias) ; 
"The divine breath of the fatherland" (P. Martinez) ; 
"The genius that has inspired sacrifices for the fatherland" 
(E. Gomez Caso) ; "He is cast in the mould of immortality 
and shed a molten tear upon Madero's grave" (R, Fernan- 
dez Giiell) ; "The everlasting idol of free peoples" (R, 
Rivera) ; "The real arbiter of our future destinies" (Pedro 
Lamicq) ; "The pure fire of patriotic souls" ; "Universal 
heir of the granite-like soul of the sublime Juarez" (C. 
Dominguez) ; "Great prophet"; "Great statesman who be- 
fore long will surprise the New World"; "Patrician soul"; 
"Luminous talent, and above all he is — The Man!" (Santos 
Chocano) ; "The vindication of rebellion"; "The brilliancy 
of patriotism"; "The diamond-like purity of the national 
ideals" (M. Fernandez Cabrera). 

In all this psalter of Carrancista praises we do not find 
such expressions as "the flaming sword," "the thunderbolt of 
war," "the terror of the furies," indicating that any martial 
traits are included in the concept of the First Chief. Even 
supposing that Carranza were a general in reality, and not 
one simply by courtesy, he does not possess the personal mag- 
netism indispensable to a great leader. The country needs 
a dictator as great as the greatness of the misfortune that is 
submerging It, and it is indispensable that he should be a 
hero possessing the magnetic qualities of a Cromwell or a 
Napoleon I — such heroes, In short, as Mexico herself has 
produced: Morelos, Iturbide, Santa Anna, Miramon, Por- 
firlo Diaz, and Villa among his bandit followers. Obregon 
has not as yet displayed his power completely to dominate 
the Constitutionalist army, or even the whole of the western 
branch, but he Is the only military man at this tlmiC who has 



350 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

enough prestige among his followers to attempt the pacifica- 
tion of the country upon a somewhat rational basis. 

No class, especially the military, can stand Sefior Car- 
ranza as dictator or as president of the Republic because he 
lacks the indispensable qualities for a Mexican dictator. 
Every one in Mexico (except the bandits who are profiting 
by anarchy) wants peace; but not the peace of the Asiatic 
slave of three thousand years ago; not the Carrancista peace, 
which is nothing but anarchy whitewashed into a de facto 
Government, much less the peace imposed by President Wil- 
son. Carranza is simply a business proposition, and a fairly 
good one at that, so long as the financial and economic con- 
ditions in the country permit of the co-existence of social life 
with the disorder and pillage raging everywhere. 

obregon's coup 

National and foreign opinion looks for the Obregon coup 
as an inevitable outcome in the evolution of the present an- 
archistic situation in Mexico. This can be predicted with 
almost mathematical precision from the precedents of uni- 
versal as well as Mexican history. General Guadalupe Vic- 
toria, the hero of the War of Independence, associated with 
General Santa Anna, revolted against the Emperor Iturbide 
and won the supreme power by means of a military coup. 
General Miguel Bravo, also a hero of the War of Independ- 
ence, revolted against President Victoria but without suc- 
cess, and another Independence hero, General Vicente Guer- 
rero, carried his revolt against Victoria to a successful ter- 
mination. General Anastasio Bustamante, in turn, ousted 
General Guerrero from the presidential chair by force. 
General Santa Anna, the "military genius," by means of a 
military coup overthrew President Bustamante in 1832 and 
again in 1841. 

Santa Anna's great friend. General Mariano Paredes y 
Arrillaga, in his capacity of "military genius," betrayed him 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 351 

by means of a military coup, and General Gabriel Valencia 
retaliated by overthrowing Paredes y Arrillaga to reinstate 
Santa Anna, who returned from exile to assume the power 
in virtue of the Guadalajara coup executed in his favor. 
General Ignacio Comonfort, the "military genius" of the 
Plan de Ayutla, was loyal to President Juan Alvarez, but 
General Manuel Doblado, Comonfort's associate, initiated 
the revolt of San Luis Potosi, and President Alvarez pru- 
dently resigned and withdrew to his estates in the south. 

General Felix Zuluaga, intimate friend of Comonfort's, 
betrayed him through the Tacubaya coup, and General 
Miguel Miramon, the brilliant "military genius," turned 
against Zuluaga and overthrew him. If the French had 
not appeared in 1862, General Gonzalez Ortega, the daz- 
zling "military genius," would have started a revolt against 
President Benito Juarez. General Porfirio Diaz, recognized 
a "military genius" in 1869, launched his Plan de la Noria, 
and would unquestionably have overthrown Juarez if the 
latter had not been called to his final accounting, dying 
on July 18, 1872. As the "military genius" of the day, 
General Porfirio Diaz was able to carry out his coup against 
President Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, and by this means 
reached the presidency in 1876. General Bernardo Reyes, 
converted into the "military genius" of the day by the power 
of the anti-Cientifico press, prepared to revolt against Gen- 
eral Diaz, but his courage failed him at the critical moment 
and he fled, leaving the apostle, Francisco Madero, heir to 
the carefully prepared revolution. Pascual Orozco's flam- 
ing sword, or to be more exact, flaming rifle, won the victory 
for Madero, thereby earning the title of "military genius," 
and the consequent obligation of revolting against Madero. 
"The Apostle" was saved by Huerta's sword, and his vic- 
tories over Orozco proclaimed him the "military genius" of 
• the day. Huerta, following historic precedent, betrayed 
Madero and permitted the latter's Reyista and Felicista en- 



352 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

emies to put him to death. The "military genius" Villa 
betrayed Carranza, and in the natural order of things Obre- 
gon will be obliged to betray his chief. 

Machiavelli takes up the relations between the Caesar and 
the "military genius" and finds that they are incompatible 
with harmony. The only logical solution is the recognition 
of the inalienable right of the "militar)^ genius" to be the 
Caesar. The testimony of history constantly reminds the 
Caesar that if there is a "military genius" in the field he may 
eventually overthrow him, and perhaps put him to death. 
The informer — odious but indispensable to the existence of 
Caesarism — daily carries tales to the Caesar of the conspira- 
cies of the "military genius" even when no such conspiracies 
exist. The informer must be abundantly supplied with the 
very marrow of calumny, and he chooses the unfortunate 
"military genius" as the base of supplies, even though the lat- 
ter may have no personal ambitions. The historic phrase "tu 
quoque Marce Brute fili mi ex lis es," attributed to Caesar, 
has remained the somber formula of the general evolution of 
Caesarian forms of government when the Csesar is not a good 
judge of men, and should be his parting words as he falls, 
stabbed through the heart by the hand of the traitor. But 
in Latin-America the dictator, instead of cherishing the "mil- 
itary genius" as a son, detests him and endeavors to reverse 
the order, making Brutus fall by the hand of Caesar. Ac- 
cording to Machiavelli, and in this he is correct, the Caesar's 
life is as much in danger at the hands of the "military 
genius" as the life of the latter is in danger at the hands of 
the Csesar. On the other hand, when public opinion has 
pronounced against the emperor it looks for a deliverer at 
any cost, and if at that moment there is a military hero to 
turn to, it proceeds to arouse his ambition, to hypnotize him, 
to convince him, in order to induce him to carry out the inex- 
orable law of nations ruled by dictators: to the victor be- 
long the spoils. If the "military genius" does not respond, 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 353 

he is branded a coward, unpatriotic, despicable. The Cassar, 
on his side, devotes himself to nullifying these efforts, to 
postponing the inevitable, and if possible to putting an end 
to the "military genius." Nothing is left to the latter but 
to follow historical precedent, or to end like Belisarius, the 
attractive hero of the Eastern Empire, a wandering beggar, 
blind and forgotten. 

Peace in Mexico cannot be founded on the Carranza- 
Obregon formula, which, tested sociologically, gives a blood- 
and-death reaction. It is true that in Mexico we have had 
the example of General Sostenes Rocha, who cleaved to Pres- 
ident Benito Juarez with the loyalty of Agrippa for Augus- 
tus; but it must not be forgotten that Rocha's devotion to 
Juarez partook of the nature of a cult. To him Juarez was 
a demi-god; whereas, according to certain information that 
has filtered through the pompous phrases of the Carrancista 
press, and above all from the declarations of some of the rev- 
olutionary chiefs, those of a Sonora colonel in particular, it 
is evident that Carranza is not his subordinate's idol. Ac- 
cording to this colonel, Don Venustiano Carranza is only "a 
poor man" in General Obregon's ej-es, soaked in flattery and 
adulation, the greater part of which has been paid for by the 
First Chief himself from his substantial "reptile fund." 

Even in the event that Obregon caved in, as Reyes did in 
1909, he would always have a successor, because one of the 
most formidable enemies to Sefior Carranza's ambition is 
militarism, irreconcilable in its attitude against civilian pres- 
idents, and especially against a civilian who has not, as 
was said of President Lerdo de Tejada, the "sun for a 
brain." 

PRESIDENT Wilson's apostasy and the reformers 

In every body of men credited with great virtue there is 
always a certain number of hypocrites. In every body of 



354 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

unprincipled politicians, boasting of sublime humanitarian 
principles, there is always a certain number of sincere men, 
and some of them may even touch the heights of real sub- 
limity. In view of this fact we are obliged to accept the 
presence of a certain number of truly apostolic men among 
the revolutionists, even though they may be thieves, because 
it is possible to be an apostle even if one be a thief. The real 
apostle who is also a fanatic is dangerous, because he exer- 
cises a power akin to the divine over the masses, as is ex- 
emplified by Zapata's influence over his own race. Even 
though President Wilson captures and executes his "ex-buen 
amigo" (ex-good friend), the bandit Villa, Villism, instead 
of dying out with its creator, will take the form of a popular 
religious cult which will impregnate with fanaticism all the 
poor to whom the Constitutionalists have preached the dog- 
ma that this revolution was being fought expressly to make 
the poor happy. The poor have understood what they have 
seen; that is, that although the ostensible reason of the spo- 
liation of the rich was to benefit the poor, the Constitutional- 
ists have not lived up to their promises; what they have 
stolen, which includes all that the poor possessed, they have 
pocketed. 

The unfortunate Mexican feels that he actually has been 
robbed by his apostles, who have lost all standing among 
the people. They are looked upon as the real enemies of the 
people, even more than the Cientificos who gave them work 
and paid with silver. Constitutionalism either does not give 
work or defrauds the working-man by paying with worthless 
money. Villism is a species of Vandalistic vindication of the 
poor against Carrancism, which has increased their misery 
and which laughs at their hopes, attempting to satisfy their 
hunger for bread and slake their thirst for justice by flaunt- 
ing before them Carranza's dazzling ambition to restore the 
decadent Porfirism of 1910. Villism may triumph and give 
the final death blow to Mexico, or it may always remain a 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 355 

revolutionary furnace, well-kindled or only partially slacked, 
ready at any moment to leap into flame. 

According to the latest reports, an extreme radical faction 
has come into being and is ready for the struggle. It is con- 
vinced that as the Constitutionalists have manifested their 
contempt for the dictatorial form of government, Carranza 
has become the reform's worst enemy. They are as keen 
now for the distribution of the supreme power among dif- 
ferent Federal and state powers as they once were for the 
distribution of land, some going so far as to aspire to have 
the nation reformed and pulverized by a luminous conven- 
tion, dowered with a corresponding Comite de Sante Public 
and as many guillotines as may be necessary. Senor Car- 
ranza told the poet Santos Chocano that he was ready to go 
wherever his partisans might take him. I think this is doubt- 
ful, because it is to the guillotine that the partisans of the 
conventionist type usually take First Chiefs when they at- 
tempt to assume the rank of kings or presidents. 

President Wilson is beginning to gather the bitter fruits 
of his idealism. The sincere reformers are more antagonistic 
to President Wilson than even the Huertistas, and it must 
be granted that they are amply justified. Our great revolu- 
tion, they say, was initiated to carry out the distribution of 
lands and to lift from Mexico's neck the foreign yoke, and 
the most humiliating example of the latter is the present 
Mexican Government's state of abject subjection to the tute- 
lage of the President of the United States. 

General Alvarado, the governor of Yucatan, ordered that 
the Yucatecan lands producing the valuable henequen should 
be distributed as far as they would go, not only among the 
poor of the state but among all poor Mexicans. General 
Alvarado publicly, and over his own signature, explained 
that the promises made by the revolution must be kept at 
any cost in order to avoid bringing dishonor upon it and in- 
curring the charge of cowardice. The planters endeavored 



356 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

by every means to induce the governor to rescind the fatal 
decree, and not receiving a favorable reply they had recourse 
to Carranza, who upheld the governor. The planters then 
sent a commission to Washington which obtained from Mr. 
Lansing, the Secretary of State, the promise that the 
Alvarado decree would be nullified by Carranza. The com- 
mission also had a conference in the United States with 
Senor Luis Cabrera, the First Chief's Secretary of Treas- 
ury, who at the instance of Mr. Lansing, communicated by 
the unfaithful revolutionist Cabrera, obtained from Carranza 
a special decree nullifying all the sacred, socialistic, vindicat- 
ing work begun by General Alvarado. The First Chief 
placed his subordinate in a ridiculous position, but Alvarado 
himself has given all the world the right to call him vile and 
cowardly. The radical faction, in a printed sheet that lies be- 
fore me, accuses Mr. Wilson of having betrayed them and of 
inciting the Mexican people to a new revolution more bloody 
than the one that apparently was coming to an end. This as- 
sertion is based upon the fact that the Mexican people will 
not tolerate that, after the unheard-of sacrifices they have 
made to obtain the distribution of the land, Mr. Wilson 
should change his mind and decide to take up the cause of the 
landowners. I do not believe that President Wilson's action 
means a betrayal of the Mexican reformers. It must for the 
time being be looked upon simply as an inexplicable act of 
apostasy. Strange, indeed, must be the reason which Presi- 
dent Wilson will be able to give in justification of his sud- 
den change of ideals, ideals which have contributed to the 
destruction of a nation of 15,000,000 inhabitants. This 
holocaust had for its object the distribution of land, and when 
the moment arrived to fulfill the promises so sacredly pledged 
by the revolution, his Secretary, Mr. Lansing, forced Car- 
ranza to restore the old order in Yucatan. 

In the incendiary sheet to which I have referred the mal- 
contents point to Senor Venustiano Carranza as an un- 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 357 

happy traitor to his country, basing this terrible accusation 
upon the following facts. In order to systematize the spo- 
liation of the henequen planters of one-half the value of 
their gross production, General Alvarado ordered the reor- 
ganization of the Yucatan Adjusting Company. The profits 
of this spoliation were to be divided between the de facto 
Government, the Yucatan state Government, and the in- 
triguing authors of this combination— a barefaced monopoly 
for universal spoliation. The International Harvester Com- 
pany, which had a contract for the entire henequen pro- 
duction of Yucatan, complained to President Wilson, and in 
order that this adroit business scheme might not fall 
through, General Alvarado had recourse to a characteristic- 
ally Carrancista measure. He obliged all the planters, under 
pain of confiscation of their plantations and the destruction 
of their maguey fields, to form a commission to go to Wash- 
ington to inform President Wilson that it was not true that 
they had been despoiled, or that the Adjusting Company was 
in any sense of the word a monopoly, or that their interests 
would continue to suffer; but that, on the contrary, they 
were eminently satisfied with General Alvarado's orders, 
which were daily adding to their capital. 

The foregoing facts, which can be absolutely substantiated, 
prove that the governor of Yucatan recognizes President 
Wilson as the supreme authority in Mexican affairs, and that 
the revolutionist's so-called aspiration to confer real national 
independence on the Mexican Government has been one of 
the many farces proclaimed to obtain the supreme power. 
The malcontents conclude by saying that at this moment 
Mexico is being governed by the Wilson-Carranza alliance, 
and decide that from the moment that Mr. Wilson has con- 
stituted himself a supreme authority in Mexican affairs war 
against Carranza and the United States is indispensable, the 
Mexican people having the right to revolt against all Mex- 
ican authority which oppresses them. 



358 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

The spirit manifested by these malcontents, who are rap- 
idly organizing, increases the gravity of the Mexican conflict, 
and there can be no doubt that President Wilson's conduct 
is to be characterized as apostasy. 

A REVOLUTION IS A REVOLUTION 

The positive and justifiable basis of the revolution of 1910 
against the permanent dictatorship of General Diaz was the 
necessity of renejving the personnel of the Government. 
Public opinion has aspired and still aspires to the speedy ap- 
pearance of capable* new men. Mexico cannot hope for 
anything from the old men as a whole, be they Porfiristas, 
Felicistas, Huertistas or Carrancistas. Neither Senor Venus- 
tiano Carranza nor those of his circle belong to the ranks 
of the new men. Carrancism is an offshoot of Reyism, and 
is a species of bossism tainted with its most corrupt and per- 
nicious qualities. 

The budding statesmen Carranza has held up to the pub- 
lic view as new men are more worn out than the Porfirian 
mummies that retired into their niches in August, 19 14. In 
politics nothing ages as much as incompetency, and so far the 
Carrancista younger element has shown more aptitude for 
appropriating automobiles and other things not belonging to 
it, than to dazzling its contemporaries with its civic virtue 
and its genius for government. 

Every revolution necessarily brings about a renewal, and 
the present Mexican revolution has attempted the daring and 
dangerous feat of renewing not only the political order, but 
the social as well. If the conquered do not react energetic- 
ally to undo the revolutionary program, it will exterminate 
them by hunger, pestilence, expatriation and sorrow. Some 
of the many who are overwhelmed by abjection may be 
saved by humbly soliciting mercy or by having their mendi- 
cancy relieved by official preferment. 

There are many so-called new men belonging to the old 



THE COLLAPSE OF CARRANCISM 359 

element who with cunning cynicism and stupendous aptitude 
for intrigue have managed to worm themselves into high of- 
fices. These they do not deserve even among bandits, be- 
cause they have not earned them by exposing their lives, but, 
like all shameless politicians, have taken advantage of the un- 
sophisticated and inexperienced wild beasts they are guiding. 
Fortunately, the revolution is more implacable than the most 
implacable revolutionist, and inasmuch has to be merciless 
toward Carranza and all the men of the old stamp who pay 
court to him. All these incompetents — followers of the old 
regime traditions, but traitors to it — must be eliminated by 
the revolution, ending their career tragically or going into 
exile to enjoy the fruits of their spoliation. A revolutionist 
who does not possess superior traits of character becomes 
brutalized. He believes that a real revolution is waged ex- 
pressly to satisfy his personal ambitions, and when these are 
satisfied, or on the way to being satisfied, the revolution can 
be brought to a standstill, just as a powerful engine can be 
stopped at the will of the engineer. A revolution ends when 
it has fulfilled its mission. It never miscarries; it is the 
dreams, the projects, the turpitudes of the revolutionists 
which miscarry. Who represents the de facto Government 
at this moment? Carranza? Then the revolution has not 
ended. Carranza is the product of the discredited Porfirian 
regime and it is politically impossible, no matter what the 
slant, as yet unknown, the revolution may take, that this 
should end by raising to power one who ought to be most 
speedily eliminated. The appointment of General Obregon 
as Secretary of War signifies that Senor Venustiano Car- 
ranza has taken the first step toward exile or the grave. 



CHAPTER III 

FINAL CONCLUSIONS: PRESIDENT WILSON'S 
LATEST SERIOUS ERRORS 

THE ONLY SOLUTION OF THE MEXICAN PROBLEM IN 
SEPTEMBER, I915 

THE different propositions offered for the solution of 
the Mexican question have been: 
First, according to American public opinion: 
Armed intervention, or to leave the Mexicans absolutely free 
to solve the present anarchistic situation by a healthful reac- 
tion or by self-extermination. 

Second, according to the opinion of foreigners living in 
Mexico: Armed intervention to establish a stable govern- 
ment, supported by the United States and capable of guar- 
anteeing peace. This is the solution upheld by the European 
Governments and peoples. The Latin-American republics 
have not expressed a general opinion on the subject. 

Third, according to the Mexican patriotic criterion, 
which is mine: To leave the Mexicans absolutely free 
to solve their internal difficulties, relying solely upon na- 
tional elements. President Wilson relinquishing his idealistic 
theories and his apostolic and humanitarian efforts in behalf 
of the poor and downtrodden. Only in the event that 
anarchy attacks foreigners by a systematic, well-formulated 
program shall the United States intervene, and then 
strictly in conformity with the dictates of international law. 
In case anarchy cannot be brought to an end by a salutary 
reaction in Mexico, and the Mexican people's inability to 
establish a tolerable government and restore social order be 

360 



FINAL CONCLUSIONS 361 

plainly demonstrated, then intervention could be undertaken 
in the name of humanity, based upon the fact that the 
United States Government had given complete freedom to 
ail the positive reactionary elements to work out the nation's 
salvation. 

From this it w^ill be seen that the rational solution of the 
Mexican problem could not be other than arm^ed interven- 
tion, or the absolute abstention by the President of the 
United States from interference in Mexico's internal affairs. 

For military reasons, upon v^^hich it is unnecessary to ex- 
patiate here, the United States cannot intervene in Mexico 
as easily as it has in Panama, in Nicaragua or in Haiti, be- 
cause it vi^ould necessitate putting the nation upon a war 
footing, a condition not existing at present. The solution 
by armed intervention requires time for preparation in order 
to carry it out prudently, and this could not be done in less 
than six months. In September, 1915, then, the immediate 
solution of the Mexican question for the President of the 
United States was to leave anarchy to operate with absolute 
freedom for an indefinite period, or until the United States 
was in a fit military position to have recourse to armed in- 
tervention. 

But the solution I have outlined — the only feasible one 
at the time — did not appeal to President Wilson. Swayed 
by political motives, looking to the coming elections, he was 
anxious to put an end to anarchy in Mexico and present as 
one of his presidential achievements the pacification of a 
people who, supported by his benevolence, made great sacri- 
fices in order to die of hunger and to totter to their graves 
along the dazzling highway of liberty pointed out by him. 
The plan adopted by Mr. Wilson to put an end to anarchy 
in Mexico was nothing short of a great blunder. He called 
a meeting of the chiefs of the various factions fighting in 
Mexico, expecting bj^ means of moral force — no longer pos- 
sessed by the United States — to oblige them to sign a peace 



362 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

compact and to choose a provisional president whom all 
would agree to obey. President Wilson's blunder consisted 
in continuing to close his eyes to the testimony of history, 
which should serve as a guide for statesmen. Never has 
anarchy in Latin-America, originating from strifes in which 
the element of personalism has existed, been solved by im- 
personal means. Mexican anarchy, like all anarchy reigning 
in countries ruled by dictators, has to be brought to an end 
by the appearance of a dictator created by the situation it- 
self, which will also take care of creating official men, or 
what amounts to the same, forming a governing aristocracy, 
which is indispensable even in the dictatorial system. 

Dictators are never appointed; they create the post; they 
impose themselves upon the people; they organize their des- 
potism; they develop it, and govern with more or less suc- 
cess as the case may be. When President Wilson's plan to 
put an end to anarchy in Mexico by means of a conciliatory 
meeting failed, he decided to settle upon Senor Venustiano 
Carranza as the "iron hand," because the latter had con- 
vinced him that he had dominated the situation from the 
military standpoint. At this point President Wilson was 
guilty of another blunder in believing that Carranza had 
dominated the military situation. The dominator was Gen- 
eral Alvaro Obregon, and as the sociological law governing 
dictatorial nations is, to the victor belong the spoils, Presi-' 
dent Wilson's recognition of Carranza would have placed 
him in a ridiculous position if Obregon had laid claim to 
his rights to the Mexican presidency won by his victorious 
sword. In that case President Wilson would have been 
obliged to embroil the Mexicans in a new war by fighting 
Obregon, as he fought Huerta, until he overthrew him. 

Even if Obregon does not claim his rights, rights that no 
Latin-American dictatorial country can deny him, a twen- 
tieth-century dictator in America must possess three qualities 
to bring a country out of anarchy and reconstruct it socially 



FINAL CONCLUSIONS 363 

and politically: He must have an "iron hand"; he must 
respect the representative democratic form of government; 
and he must have public opinion in his favor, and the de- 
cided support, or at least the toleration, of the conservative 
classes. 

As has been proved, Senor Venustiano Carranza has read 
the law of dictators backwards, as he places the "iron hand" 
upon the peaceful and the honest, and caresses the bandits 
with a maternal tenderness. Carranza's ambition is the 
well-defined program of being the parasite of those who 
make game of his weakness, consenting to all kinds of crimes 
in order to win their false allegiance. The indispensable 
requisite of respect for the representative democratic form of 
government does not exist, having been replaced by the 
shameless proclamation of the period of pre-Constitutional- 
ism, reminiscent of prehistoric tyranny. With regard to 
the requisite of public opinion, President Wilson has com- 
mitted the unpardonable error of believing that in Latin- 
America all that is necessary to smother anarchy is to create 
an "iron hand," no matter who the wielder may be. The 
history of Latin-American nations throughout one hundred 
years, as well as the history of Imperial Rome and of the 
Italian condottierej proves that dictators who have been 
hated by the whole nation, and who were without any other 
support than that of their miserable agents, were always 
weak in the extreme and were subject to being betrayed by 
their own followers. They were obsessed by the terror of 
the ever-increasing odium of the public which urged them — 
traitors to tyranny — to throw themselves at the mercy of 
the people in order to preserve the fruit of their rapine. 

Neither Mr. Wilson nor the delegates of the Latin-Amer- 
ican Government who, in October, 19 15, made up the com- 
mission which so degraded Mexico — placing her on the 
same level as Albania — recognized the fact that even though 
Carranza had dominated the situation from a military point 



364 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

of view, the guerrilla bands had not j'et been subjugated. 
And even if he dominated these, there still remained the 
economic situation (the problem of the starving nation), 
and the financial situation (the complete state of bank- 
ruptcy), which must eventually lead him in the direction 
toward which he is now headed. It is becoming impossible 
for him to pay his mercenaries and the inevitable result will 
be that they will pounce upon the remainder of the country's 
wealth, because otherwise they will starve. But even 
if the financial situation could be solved and dominated, pub- 
lic opinion still remains which, as I have so frequently said, 
basing my assertions on our national history, alwaj^s ends 
by obsessing the paid assassins of the t5aant and inducing 
them to turn their arms against the person of the Caesar. 
National and foreign public opinion is against Car- 
rancism, and there is a counter-revolutionary movement, 
whether President AVilson wishes to acknowledge it or not. 
First, Villism, properly so-called, which embodies the popu- 
lar Mexican hatred for the United States and for President 
Wilson in particular. This hatred is manifested by the dis- 
position of all the bandits to kill Americans and destroy 
their property, not only in the state oi Chihuahua but all 
over the country. Second, Zapatism, which represents the 
real aspirations of the indigenous race, brave, indomitable, 
resolved to triumph or to die, and which professes the same 
degree of hatred for the United States that the Villistas do. 
Third, the conservative classes, represented by all property 
owners, business men, manufacturers, the great bureau- 
cratic class which is starving to death, and the radical 
Jacobin lower m.iddle class. All these various elements have 
the most profound hatred for President Wilson, because, 
being a white man, he has given his protection to a war 
against the whites; because, being a foreigner, he has pro- 
tected a war against foreigners ; because, being the Presi- 
dent of the United States and in virtue of tlie Monroe Doc- 



FINAL CONCLUSIONS 365 

trine bound to see that the rights of foreigners who are not 
Americans are respected, he has protected the bandits, who 
are the enemies of all foreigners, presenting the only example 
in history of a proxy protecting the enemies of his own 
clients; because, being an American, that is, a believer in 
liberty of conscience, he has protected a frenzied war against 
Catholicism, M^aged as cruelly and bloodily as the religious 
wars of the sixteenth century; and, lastly, because he has 
protected a war of the poor against the rich, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that he is the President of a democratic republic 
in which one of the first rights of a man is to work to get 
rich, and the second, to be respected when he has attained 
this goal. 

When the Civil War ended in 1865, three years after 
the invasion of Mexico by the French, Mr. Seward, the 
Secretary of State, sent Napoleon III, through Mr. Bige- 
low, United States Minister to France, the famous note in 
which he was told that the United States, in view of the 
amplified Monroe Doctrine, could not consent to the occu- 
pation of Mexico by a foreign army, and that it was abso- 
lutely necessary that this should be withdrawn. French 
diplomacy called President Lincoln's attention to the fact 
that the Monroe Doctrine was not being violated, because 
the French army was not in Mexico for the purpose of 
acquiring territory, either definitely or temporarily, but 
simply to establish solidly a government freely elected by 
the Mexican people, who had voted for a monarchy, select- 
ing as their ruler the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. 
Mr. Seward replied that even if this were the case it did 
not meet the United States' approval to have a country 
ruled by a monarchical form of government for its next-door 
neighbor. As interpreted by Mr. Seward, the Monroe' 
Doctrine was stretched to include the prohibition of the 
establishment of monarchies in Latin-America. 

The American people and the Latin-American republics 



366 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

have the right to ask Mr. Wilson: Does the establishment, 
adjoining its frontier, of a socialistic, anarchistic republic, 
having as a fundamental principle the war of the poor 
against the rich, meet with the approval of the people of 
the United States, where a menacing Socialistic party already 
exists, and which is in a fair way to develop along lines ex- 
tremely dangerous to the stability of the American Govern- 
ment? Are monarchical institutions more dangerous to the 
well-being of the American people than anarchistic institu- 
tions, given over to pillage, crime and national dissolution? 
I believe President Wilson in the position of President of 
the United States is one of the most dangerous enemies of 
humanity. 

If the conservative classes are opposed to the establish- 
ment of Carrancism let us see what goes on in the popular 
class. For eight years General Reyes carried on — secretly 
and in the open — a campaign against the Cientificos, trying 
to inflame popular sentiment against them and to disguise 
the war of the poor against the rich by the substitution of 
one word for another. The Reyista formula was: The 
war of the poor against the rich, who are the Cientificos. 
For three years after the Creelman conference, from 
1908 to 1 9 10, inclusive, the agitators all over the country 
who were affiliated with the Reyistas upheld the war of the 
poor against the Cientificos, making the people believe that 
they were the rich men of the nation. In the Madero elec- 
tions of 1 91 2, the demagogues, in order to break the power 
of the Catholic party, which possessed enormous electoral 
strength, openly and boldly fell back upon the promise of 
war against the rich and the distribution of their property 
among the poor. The promise of the distribution of the 
land has been the cloak most frequently used to conceal the 
real cry to excite the popular mind — the war of the poor 
against the rich and the extermination of the latter. I have 
given ample proof in this book that the sinister, vivifying 



FINAL CONCLUSIONS 367 

principle of the revolution has really been two leading pas- 
sions carried to the point of dementia — vengeance and pil- 
lage. By means of this great promise the Mexican people 
became convinced that the revolution had been waged, or 
should be waged, for the exclusive benefit of the poor. As 
these people are illiterate, their boundless credulity was 
played upon, and they were convinced that with the division 
of the wealth of the rich among the poor they would be 
rich and, consequently, happy, because they would not have 
to work. 

The revolution that overthrew Huerta was initiated and 
consummated by the men of the north, the population of 
this section being 2,500,000. The northerners had the active 
support of the states of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Vera 
Cruz, and the moral support of the 10,000,000 inhabitants 
of the central states. When the northerners triumphed and 
obtained possession of all the Republic except the state of 
Oaxaca and the territory dominated by Zapata, they ordered 
the disarmament, under pain of death, of all the towns. No 
one possessing a firearm or sidearm of any description was 
allowed to keep it. Having accomplished the complete dis- 
armament, the northerners proclaimed themselves conquerors 
of the central states and the inhabitants became virtual slaves. 

Such is the democracy President Wilson has succeeded in 
establishing in Mexico at the expense of its national life. 

Naturally, the virile portion of this enslaved population is 
beginning to understand its true situation, and is resolved 
not to submit to the yoke imposed by the northerners. They, 
moreover, have seen and continue to see that the northerners 
have despoiled the rich of all their possessions, but have not 
divided them among the poor, that, on the contrary, 
any unfortunate poor person caught stealing is shot. The 
fruits of this rapine are for the conquerors, and an evident 
undercurrent of insurrection against their oppressors is be- 
ginning to be evident among the working classes; that is. 



368 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

among the eighty-five per cent which has aroused Mr. Wil- 
son's sympathies. Carrancism, then, has arrayed against it 
at present the odium of the poor, who have been deceived 
and placed in such a desperate plight by the rapacity of the 
conquerors, as well as by their inability to govern. An 
actual state of famine is not far off. Paper money is depre- 
ciating rapidly and the daily wage is not increasing, even at 
a rate to enable the poor to starve gradually to death. 

A real statesman — and undoubtedly Mr. Wilson is not 
one — should have taken into consideration the fact that 
from a political standpoint Senor Carranza cannot be the 
head of the Mexican Government. All honest Maderistas 
hate him. Senor Carranza has carried his passion for ven- 
geance to the point of confiscating all Madero's property, as 
well as that of his brother Gustavo. For Carranza only 
one rule holds good: either you are a Carrancista or you are 
not; if not, you are to be punished by confiscation of all 
your property and even death itself. A politician of this sort 
can never govern. Implacable haters were never born to 
rule; they are destined to raise up an enemy to every square 
yard of territory they profess to rule. In October, 191 5, 
Senor Carranza was face to face with the revolting forces — 
some armed, others about to be armed — of the Maderistas, 
the Huertistas, the Felicistas, the Villistas, the Zapatistas, 
the counter-reformers, the landowners, the roving bandits, 
the dissatisfied bandits, who will not long remain faithful 
to him, the Catholics, and even the clergy. And since the 
Columbus incident he vi^ill have against him, whether Villa 
is captured or not, every true patriot, taking into account 
that there are also patriots in the ranks of the Carrancistas. 
No one will forgive Carranza for having given permission 
for the punitive expedition undertaken by the United States 
which is so humiliating for Mexico and significant of a 
tremendous blow against her sovereignty. 

Reflecting upon the facts I have just stated — all of which, 



FINAL CONCLUSIONS 369 

excepting the Columbus incident, existed in October, 19 15 — 
one becomes convinced of Carranza's political impotency to 
establish a stable government. Nevertheless, President Wil- 
son decided to recognize Carranza, without feeling the 
slightest compassion for the Mexican people; without taking 
into consideration the abject state of salvery to which they 
had been reduced; without experiencing any sense of moral 
responsibility at confirming the subjugation of 12,000,000 
souls in the central states by the men of the north ; without 
estimating his responsibility before the American people for 
his conduct, because his action could not help but provoke 
a fierce and inextinguishable hatred of Americans among the 
people whom he had helped to enslave, I am going to set 
forth the pitious results of this action, although they may 
be well known. 



CHAPTER IV 
ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 

WHO IN REALITY IS VILLA? 

IN view of the Columbus incident, the world, moved by 
the moral aspect of the question, has exclaimed: So 
long as Villa killed Mexicans and foreigners, other 
than Americans, so long as he indulged in brutal mutilations, 
so long as he destroyed public and private property, so long 
as he sacked and burned, and trampled civilization under 
foot, he was for President Wilson and his unlucky advisers 
a hero, a liberator, a military genius, a Napoleon, a William 
Tell. But it was enough for Villa to turn the smallest of 
his batteries against his former protectors, for the ardent 
admirers of yesterday to rise and brand him as a wretched 
bandit worthy only of death. 

It is evident that the American people are not unmoral, 
perverse or imbecile. They are capable of the noblest pub- 
lic passions and as quick to respond to the electric current 
of public sentiment as any Latin or subjugated nation. The 
American people knew Villa was a bandit; but when a 
bandit represents a great revolutionary cause, his repugnant 
physical characteristics are but an atom compared with the 
immensity of his political character. The American peo- 
ple saw in Villa a Ziska struggling to redeem an enslaved 
people, languishing from hunger, pain and brutalizing tradi- 
tions, surrounded by marvellous lands, but despised and kept 

370 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 371 

under by a vicious, avaricious, plutocratic landowning class. 
The American people have but one alternative; they must 
either face the unfavorable verdict of humanity and history, 
or agree that they considered Villa a great leader, equal 
to Drake, acclaimed by the British, or Herman Cortes, hon- 
ored as the conqueror of the New World. And no one 
will deny that both were as much to be admired as heroes 
as they were to be execrated as bandits. 

Villa, in his capacity of President of the Republic of Chi- 
huahua, was for President Wilson a colleague ; as an apostle, 
his confrere ; as a redeemer of the Mexican people, an equal ; 
as a politician, a "buen amigo." President Wilson must 
take his choice. Either he must acknowledge that he con- 
firmed the American people's universal acclamation of Villa 
as a belligerent, or that as the President of the United States 
he has lowered his dignity to an inconceivable depth: first, 
by treating a bandit with the consideration due to an equal; 
second, by sending the Chief of Staff of the American Army 
to treat as power to power with a bandit; and, finally, by 
allowing the American soldiers, who are the social, political 
and legal representatives of the national honor, to honor 
Villa by the presentation of arms. There is only one way 
open for President Wilson to evade the responsibility that 
rests upon him for having stained his administration and 
his country by maintaining cordial official relations with the 
bandit Villa, and that is to stand up manfully for the truth 
(which will be the verdict of history), and confess that in 
the eyes of the United States Government and the American 
people Villa has been a glorious belligerent, a warrior of 
the epic type, frighting for a great revolutionary cause, en- 
compassing the humanitarian dreams of President Wilson. 

In November, 1914, the celebrated governing Conven- 
tion was established with its ministers, army, administra- 
tive body, counsellors, diplomatists and everything that was 
necessary to give it a representative form, the majority of 



372 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Mexican territory coming under its jurisdiction. Mr. Bryan 
entered a claim before this Convention for the killing of an 
American by a Zapatista soldier, and after brief negotiations 
the Conventional Government agreed to recognize the claim 
and to indemnify the widow of the deceased. When com- 
munication between the capital and the north was cut off, 
the Convention appointed Villa General-in-Chief of all the 
Conventional army and delegate of the Convention in the 
north, investing him with supreme faculties, fully as ample 
as those possessed by the Convention itself. Villa proceeded 
at once, in virtue of his exalted functions, to form an admin- 
istration, naming a cabinet, appointing diplomatists and 
counsellors, and exercised in the north an absolute govern- 
ment as the representative of the Conventional Government. 

PAN-AMERICANISM IS A FARCE OR AN IGNOMINY 

/ Pan-Americanism has to be either a broken reed or some- 
thing decidedly unpleasant and unsavory. The fundamental 
reason for the foundation of Pan-Americanism was the co- 
operation of all the nations on the American continent to 
guarantee each other's independence. The note sent by 
President Wilson to General Huerta in August, 191 3, by 
his representative, Mr. Lind, was a barefaced attack upon 
Mexican sovereignty from the moment President Wilson 
imperatively ordered President Huerta — recognized by all 
the Great Powers as President of Mexico — to cease hostili- 
ties at once, to renounce the presidency, to arrange for gen- 
eral elections and to submit to the prohibition of appearing 
as a presidential candidate himself. What did Pan-Ameri- 
canism do in the face of so flagrant a violation of Mexican 
sovereignty ? What Michelena, the Mexican general, said of 
the judges of the Supreme Federal Court in 1827: "These 
gentlemen are in their posts to flatter the winning revolu- 
tionists and to sentence the losers." The Latin-American 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 373 

members of the Pan-American Union are in their posts to 
flatter the United States Government, because it is strong, 
and to sentence the weaker nations, which are related to 
them by ties of blood, to death or degradation. 

In May, 191 4, the Pan-Americans gave their support to 
the mediation comedy held at Niagara Fails. Their mis- 
won should have been to censure the government which 
brusquely exacted satisfaction by arms when it was being 
granted by diplomatic means. Even more. The Pan- 
Americans countenanced the subterfuge of prolonging the 
negotiations in order that Huerta's overthrow might be 
effected, thus saving Mr. Wilson from the anger of the 
wounded Mexican dictator, who was resolved to invade 
Texas in order to convert Mr. Wilson's nicely-planned 
comedy into a dark tragedy. 

In October, 1915, the Pan-Americans, in the fulfillment 
of their duty, once more proved their littleness. They were 
called together to decide upon the internal political problem 
of the Mexican nation. They treated Mexico as the Euro- 
pean Powers treated Albania and, albeit their Pan-Ameri- 
canism, acquiesced in the formation of a conciliatory com- 
mission which should decide which of the warring chiefs 
should be recognized. In other words, their role was to 
relieve Mr. Wilson of the disloyalty of convoking the chiefs 
of the various Mexican factions, so that they might name a 
provisional president. When all the chiefs, except the Car- 
rancista representatives, had answered Mr. Wilson's call, he 
decided to break his promises, ridicule the attitude of the 
attendants, frustrate their hopes and surprise them by recog- 
nizing Carranza. This was equivalent to imposing Car- 
ranza as the dictator of Mexico, because it gave the assured 
protection of the United States Government and the conse- 
quent power to snuff out all opponents of Carrancism. One 
must have very little knowledge of human nature not to 
know that in the face of Mr. Wilson's treachery Villa and 



374 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Zapata v/ould be inflamed with hatred and decide upon 
prompt vengeance — it mattered not what, so long as it were 
telling. 

According to Senator Fall, the conduct of the Latin- 
American members of the Pan-American Union has been 
mysterious, and without a doubt it has been surprising. Be- 
fore the formation of the Conciliatory Commission — ^which 
might aptly be called the Treacherous Commission — they 
were opposed to the appointment of Carranza. They had 
been influenced by Duval West's report. Mr. West, a 
representative and highly respected gentleman, had been 
commissioned by President Wilson to report the true state 
of things in Mexico. They also took into consideration the 
following reports: that of the American Red Cross, which 
was adverse to Carranza; that of the Ministers from Brazil 
and Guatemala, accredited to the legitimate Mexican Gov- 
ernment; that of the European Diplomatic Corps stationed 
in Mexico; besides the information possessed by the Wash- 
ington Government and the various public statements made 
by eminent Mexicans living in the United States and which 
were based upon documentary evidence. These reports were 
supported by the declarations made before a notary public 
by prominent Americans who had escaped from Mexico, 
afraid to remain at the mercy of the mob that pretended to 
govern. All this weighty testimony was set aside, dis- 
credited for that submitted by Senor Eliseo Arredondo, Car- 
ranza's agent, supported by Senor Luis Cabrera, Carranza's 
Secretary of the Treasury, who came to the United States 
resolved to exert his powers of eloquence — not as an orator, 
for he does not possess them — but as a diplomat, taught in 
some mysterious but very thorough school. And the Latin- 
American members of the Pan-American Union decided in 
favor of Carranza! 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 375 

A VERY SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL PRECEDENT 

In 1862 Mr. Corwin, United States Minister to Mexico, 
asked President Juarez, on behalf of President Lincoln, to 
permit the American Federal army to cross Mexican terri- 
tory in order to make an attack upon the Southern army. 
The day after Mr. Corwin had presented this petition, the 
agent of the Southern Government called upon President 
Juarez to tell him that his Government v^^ould not tolerate 
the passage of Northern troops through Mexican territory. 
Such an action, he said, would be considered as an alliance 
between the Mexican and Federal Governments, and the 
Southerners would declare war against Mexico. President 
Juarez called his attention to the fact that under interna- 
tional law no such government as the Southern Government 
existed and, as Mexico had not recognized the belligerency 
of the Confederate States, they were nothing but rebels and 
the Mexican Government could not take up for considera- 
tion claims or petitions which could lawfully be submitted 
only by an established government or recognized belliger- 
ents. The Mexican City press, which sympathized with 
the Southern cause, advocated recognizing their belligerency. 
The Secretary of Foreign Relations was interpellated in the 
Federal Congress with regard to this serious question, and 
a heated debate was held in secret session, which, however, 
resulted in non-recognition of the belligerency of the South; 
but neither did it grant the request to allow the troops to 
pass through Mexican territory. Senor Manuel Doblado, a 
great political orator, upheld the right of the Confederates 
to declare war upon Mexico in case the Mexican Govern- 
ment should grant the desired permission, because, although 
according to international law the Southerners were rebels, 
in the sphere of reality they were belligerents, possessing the 
physical and moral right to act in the premises. 

There were cases, said Senor Doblado, in which the real, 



376 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the legitimate and the just were opposed to what in a legal 
sense is unjust, and in this case every honest man and every 
government worthy of the name should be on the side of 
justice; more so, as no law compelled the Mexican Govern- 
ment to an act of injustice such as that of acceding to the 
petition of President Lincoln's diplomatic representative. 
The Mexican Congress unanimously agreed that a declara- 
tion of war against Mexico by the South, would without 
any doubt be justifiable, if Juarez gave permission for the 
Federal army to cross Mexican territory, thereby gravely 
injuring the political interests of the Southerners, whom 
they believed to be patriots. 

President Lincoln's Government later insisted upon carry- 
ing its point, and I do not remember whether or not Presi- 
dent Juarez had alreadj^ given his consent to the passage of 
the troops when Congress conferred extraordinary — almost 
absolute — faculties upon him. What President Juarez 
might have done after Congress in secret session had denied 
permission for the troops to pass is of no consequence, if the 
Southern Governments' conduct be conceded to have been 
moral and just, because in reality they were belligerents, and 
realities take precedence over juridical fictions and over the 
decrees of international law when these are erroneously 
applied. 

PRESIDENT DAVIS'S RIGHT AND THE BELLIGERENT VILLa's 

RIGHT 

Undoubtedly, from a personal point of view, there is a 
vast difference between the honorable President of the Con- 
federacy and the bandit Villa; but from a political and jurid- 
ical point of view the situation is identical. President 
Davis was considered a rebel by President Lincoln, and a 
traitor to his country. Carranza, after having been recog- 
nized by President Wilson, considered Villa a rebel and a 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 377 

traitor to his country, his country in this case being identi- 
fied with the revolution. Jefferson Davis was President of 
the Confederacy. Villa was the Supreme Delegate of the 
Mexican National Convention, which had established a 
government, and he exercised the functions of President in 
Chihuahua in behalf of the Convention in the north. Presi- 
dent Davis was never recognized as a belligerent by Presi- 
dent Juarez; General Villa was never directly recognized 
as a belligerent by President Wilson, but he was expressly 
and indirectly recognized as such when President Wilson 
asked for a solemn conference with General Scott, his Chief 
of Staff, the bandit being honored at this time by the pres- 
entation of arms by the United States soldiers. Moreover, 
the American people acclaimed him as a belligerent, and only 
by sustaining this acclamation can they save themselves from 
the imputation of having been the admirers and protectors 
of a bandit who has ruthlessly destroyed a civilized nation, 
which was upon the most friendly terms with their own 
Government. 

Once President Wilson had recognized Senor Carranza's 
government he declared himself his ally. This is proved by 
indisputable facts. He permitted the Carrancista troops, 
provisions and munitions to pass through American terri- 
tory in order to succor the Carrancista General Calles and 
his four thousand men, who were threatened with annihila- 
tion by Villa and his fifteen thousand troopers. In order 
to help Carranza, he prohibited the shipment of provisions 
to Mexico which might be used to feed the Villa forces; he 
ordered the water conduit from which the Villistas drew 
their supply to be closed; and, finally, he directed General 
Funston, in case Mexican shells fell upon American terri- 
tory, to open fire upon Villa. General Funston said pub- 
licly that shells had fallen on American territory during the 
first Calles and Villa encounter, but they had not returned 
fire because it was clearly evident that they came from 



378 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

Calles's guns, who relied upon the support of American arms 
to vanquish his adversarj^ President Wilson was Senor 
Carranza's ally, and Villa — a belligerent in the sphere of 
reality — would have been justified, from the standpoint of 
equity, in declaring war against the United States, just as 
President Davis would have been justified in declaring war 
against Mexico if President Juarez had acted as President 
Lincoln's ally during the War of Secession. 

I should be the last to deny that Villa since he first made 
his appearance in Mexico has been a bandit and an outlaw, 
but his attack upon Columbus cannot be qualified as the act 
of a bandit. For a force of two or three hundred men to 
attack a town defended by six hundred and fifty American 
soldiers, well equipped, well officered and well armed, can 
hardly be called brigandage. If a pirate in a fragile canoe 
were to attack an English armored cruiser in mid-ocean it 
could not be classed as piracy, but as the act of a reckless 
fighter or of a madman. Villa's motive in attacking Colum- 
bus was to take vengeance on Wilson and Carranza, and to 
bring down upon both the wrath of the American people, 
who had been so outrageously affronted by his attack. He 
wished especially to wreak vengeance on Carranza, who, he 
hoped, would be crushed by the military power of the 
United States. Undoubtedly Villa's action is to be classified 
as high treason as well as low treason; but just as a revolu- 
tion is a revolution, so Villa is Villa, and it is quite natural 
that he should have retaliated like a wild beast and not like 
a patriot, when he realized that he was being annihilated by 
the Wilson-Carranza alliance. 

Villa's first impulse when he heard that President Wilson 
had recognized the Carranza Government was to concen- 
trate his forces, approximately thirty thousand men, to fling 
them against the American frontier towns, massacre the in- 
habitants and reduce the buildings to ashes. Some of his 
better educated and more conservative followers were able 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 379 

to dissuade him from carrying out this program, convincing 
him that he would gain more by surprising the Carranza 
troops stationed in Sonora, because the chances of routing 
them completely were in his favor, as Carranza was not in 
a position to give them any aid. The permission granted by 
President Wilson for Carrancista troops to cross American 
territory to relieve General Calles, who was hemmed in at 
Agua Prieta, was the culminating blow, and Villa decided 
to carry out his plan of vengeance by attacking Columbus. 

AN IMPARTIAL EXPOSITION OF THE CASE 

The Mexican question in its final stage must be examined 
with calmness, reasoned out intelligently and settled with 
justice. Patriotism when it is carried to the extreme of pas- 
sion is always inimical to truth, and its conclusions are re- 
jected in judgments that are based on learning and morality. 

From the moment that Villa accomplished the attack on 
Columbus he ranked, in the eyes of the United States Gov- 
ernment and those of the American people, as a bandit, the 
leader of a band of bandits as infamous as himself. 

I have read with regret the published statements of cul- 
tured Mexicans to the effect that Villa's attack cannot com- 
promise Mexico in the slightest degree. It is an accepted 
and absolutely unimpeachable principle of international law: 
"que toute communaute politique organisee assume la re- 
sponsabilite des acts des ses membres a I'egard des autres 
Etats, si, sur une plainte a elle adressee, elle ne contraint 
pas les auteurs de I'olfense a donner satisfaction a I'Etat 
lese. Un Etat ne peut exiger de reparation de la part d'un 
sujet d'un autre Etat qu'en s'adressant au gouvernement de 
la nation dont I'oflEenseur est membre. S'il y a refus, I'Etat 
assume la responsabilite des actes de son sujet." ^ 

An extradition treaty was in force between Mexico and 
1 H. Bonfils, Droit International, p. 651. 



38o WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the United States at the time the attack upon Columbus took 
place. Article IV of this treaty says: "Neither one of the 
contracting parties shall be obliged in virtue of this agree- 
ment to hand over its own citizens, but the Executive of 
either nation shall be endowed with the faculty of turning 
them over if in his opinion it be deemed expedient." 

In virtue of this treaty Carranza possessed the right to 
refuse to hand Villa and his followers over to the United 
States; but he was obliged to pursue, capture and punish 
them in conformity with the Mexican penal laws. The 
United States Government had the right to set a time for 
Carranza to capture and punish the culprits, and if he failed 
to do so, for any reason whatsoeverj the United States Gov- 
ernment had the right to declare war against Mexico in 
order to mete out justice with its own hand, or to decree 
some act of reprisal against the Mexican Government. 

President Wilson acted with regard to the existing extra- 
dition treaty just as Germany did with regard to the treaty 
guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium to which it had 
affixed its signature — declared it a "scrap of paper," and 
proceeded forcibly against Mexico. The President of the 
United States began by carrying out against Mexico the act 
of reprisal to which the American nation undoubtedly would 
have been entitled if the Mexican Government had not 
given the satisfaction demanded in the time agreed upon by 
both nations, or in that stipulated by the United States. 

By proceeding so ruthlessly against Mexico before he was 
justified in doing so. President Wilson did not act in bad 
faith, or in a spirit of aggression against the Mexican peo- 
ple or their Government. On the contrary, not wishing to 
go to war, he aimed only at calming the popular agitation 
which already appeared violent enough to force the White 
House to declare war upon Mexico without further delay. 

At dawn, on March 9, 191 6, the ex-military genius, Fran- 
cisco Villa, attacked the town of Columbus, and the next 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 381 

day President Wilson's secretary made the following official 
announcement: "An adequate force will be sent at once to 
pursue Villa. The sole object of the expedition will be to 
capture him and put an end to further raids. This can 
and will be done with the friendly assistance of the consti- 
tuted Mexican authorities, and with scrupulous respect for 
the sovereignty of that Republic." 

From this, then, it will be seen that President Wilson 
was responsible for the statement that the force that was to 
be sent into Mexican territory in pursuit of Villa would 
have the friendly assistance of the constituted Mexican au- 
thorities, and would be carried out with scrupulous respect 
for the sovereignty of the Mexican Republic. 

Was it not rash, even to the point of temerity, for Presi- 
dent Wilson to give assurance that the American military 
expedition could count upon the friendly cooperation of the 
constituted Mexican authorities, when its mission was an 
act of reprisal that could not be considered otherwise than 
in the nature of an affront by the nation against whom it 
was being carried out? 

THE PATRIOTISM OF THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS 

If President Wilson has formed a low estimate of the 
patriotism of the Constitutionalists, undoubtedly, he cannot 
be said to have acted with equal rashness. 

In August, 1913, President Wilson's personal representa- 
tive, Mr. Lind, presented an insulting note to the Mexican 
Government of which General Huerta was then the head. 
The latter was commanded by the White House to sus- 
pend hostilities at once, to resign the provisional presidency, 
to arrange for a presidential election and to refrain from 
taking part himself as a candidate. If in any country of 
recognized patriotism — take Spain for example — the Presi- 
dent of the United States had ordered Alfonso XIII to 



382 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

renounce the throne, to arrange for republican elections, and 
to refrain from taking any part in them as a candidate, even 
the street whelps would have protested against the insult 
offered, not only to the person of the king, but to the sover- 
eignty, independence and dignity of the Spanish nation. But 
when this occurred in Mexico, the Constitutionalists, both 
by word of mouth and in writing, publicly applauded Mr. 
Wilson, conferred upon him the title of "Doctor Insigne" 
(Distinguished Doctor), and protector of Mexican liberties 
and of the revolution that was destined to save the poor. 
It was considered that Carranza's diplomatic agent at Wash- 
ington had played the part of a consummate patriot in the 
negotiations to further the cause of Mexican democracy. 

Later events were even more deplorable. In April, 19 14, 
without any motive to justify an invasion of Mexican terri- 
tory by land and sea, President Wilson decreed the Vera 
Cruz expedition. His sole object was to further the revolu- 
tionary cause by weakening Huerta's position. This invasion 
was approved by the pro-Yankee patriots, and even Carranza 
retreated from his patriotic attitude of protest when Villa 
threatened him if he did not accept the armed intervention 
of the United States. Consul Carothers made this state- 
ment, and it is corroborated by Mr. Bell in his book The 
Political Shame of Mexico. 

A talented writer who is one of Senor Carranza's sincere 
sympathizers has written the following: "The events to 
which I refer took place previous to the occupation of Vera 
Cruz by the Yankee forces. With regard to the latter, 
we regret that President Wilson, notwithstanding possible 
good intentions (confirmed perhaps by more recent acts), 
should have embarked upon a mistaken, bloody and useless 
mission, which involves — no matter from what point of view 
one considers it — a humiliation for Mexico. We regret 
that Victoriano Huerta, once the conflict was provoked, 
should not have known how to find in the midst of all his 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 383 

vices a remnant of dignity and decorum which would have 
urged him to offer a substantial resistance. We regret that 
Venustiano Carranza, always blameless in his relations with 
the United States, always tenacious — although blinded at 
times — should not have maintained his dignified attitude of 
energetic protest which he frankly outlined in his ultimatum 
to President Wilson." ^ 

No one can understand why, according to these politicians, 
patriotism should impose on the Mexicans the duty of shed- 
ding the last drop of their blood in defense of their national 
sovereignty and territory when an American armed force 
occupies a section of the state of Chihuahua; and that, when 
an American armed force occupied the city of Vera Cruz, 
with a previous heroic shedding of Mexican blood. President 
Wilson should be acclaimed the benefactor of Mexico and 
the protector of its liberties and independence. This rather 
startling phenomenon can be explained by the fact that 
politicians in almost all of the Latin-American nations take 
advantage of the docility and credulity of the masses over 
whom they tyrannize. So far as patriotic enthusiasm is 
concerned they can mould them at will. WTien an Ameri- 
can armed force invades a Latin-American country for the 
purpose of overthrowing the established government, the 
revolutionists, if the invading army supports their cause, 
preach the doctrine that nothing is more patriotic or respect- 
ful to national sovereignty than the intervention of the 
Yankees. But when these traitors get control of the supreme 
power they do not hesitate to declare that nothing is more 
reprehensible or more offensive to national honor than a 
Yankee invasion, when this is not undertaken to further the 
interests of the established government, which owes its 
triumph to the intervention of this very same hateful Yankee 
army. Senor Guzman, who is neither a reactionary, a cleri- 
cal, or a Cientifico, says: "When Carranza, the chief of 

1 Martin Luis Guzman, La querella de Mexico, p. 69. 



384 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

the revolutionary faction, asks the United States Govern- 
ment to recognize him as the President of the Republic of 
Mexico, he does nothing but pay homage to a very old politi- 
cal truth recognized in Mexico; that is: No political party 
in Mexico possesses of itself the inherent strength to domi- 
nate the situation; its stability and strength depend upon 
the support of a foreign power. . . . The recent Huerta 
case is conclusive proof of this. Bloated with power, in- 
undated with wealth, and above all, not troubled by con- 
scientious scruples as to the means employed to obtain results, 
he, nevertheless, fell. One word from Woodrow Wilson, 
one "No" from the President of a foreign nation decided 
Huerta's fate and the .destinies of Mexico. All that he 
needed to establish him in power was the recognition of the 
Yankee. Villa and Carranza had no other help." ^ 

Senor Guzman's observations, written in 19 1 5, tally ex- 
actly with the declarations of high officials of the United 
States Department of State, published on June 21, 1916. 
They evince surprise at Carranza's conduct, which they char- 
acterize as rebellion, since he owes his triumph and his post 
as First Chief to them. The press in the United States, with- 
out exception, comments upon the sudden development by 
the Constitutionalists of such delicate patriotic susceptibilities, 
when heretofore, from March, 1913, to October 9, 1915, 
when President Wilson recognized the de facto Government 
— much to the surprise of the civilized world — they had 
done nothing but wipe up the floors of the National Capitol 
at Washington in their servile homage to the powers that be. 

In 1 861, when the War of Secession broke out in the 
United States, France and England offered to act as media- 
tors between the Unionists and Secessionists. President 
Lincoln and his eminent Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, 
rejected the offer indignantly, and gave Mr. Dayton definite 
instructions that he was not to accept offers of mediation 

1 Martin Luis Guzman, La querella de Mexico, pp. 58, 59. 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 385 

from any foreign government, adding, that the United States 
Government would consider as a grave offense any meddling 
on the part of any foreign power in the internal affairs of 
the United States. M. Billault, Napoleon Third's un- 
accredited Minister, informed the Diplomatic Corps that Mr. 
Dayton had rejected all idea of mediation as contrary to 
the dignity and sovereignty of the American nation. 

President Wilson, although he was well aware of these 
precedents, convoked the Conciliatory Conference, composed 
of the representatives of the Governments of Argentine, 
Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Guatemala, putting 
Mexico on a level with Albania by presuming to decide 
which of the bandits who figured in the Mexican revolution 
should be accorded the distinction of being recognized as 
the head of a de facto government by the United States. 
This question of de facto governments is an ofEense to 
Mexico because under international law only the States is a 
person, and there are no de facto, constitutional, legal, 
usurping or legitimate States according to international law. 
The President of the United States has the right to recog- 
nize or not to recognize a Mexican government, but he has 
not the right to call its origin, its nature or its deficiencies 
into question. The de facto feature in these negotiations 
was in reality an offense which Carranza mistook for an 
international caress or an enviable mark of distinction. Not 
one of the Constitutionalist representatives invited to attend 
the Conference of October, 19 15, refused to do so on the 
ground of the offense offered to the Mexican nation by the 
purpose of the gathering. If Senor Carranza refused to 
send his representative, it was not because he thought 
Mexico's internal political affairs should not be aired by 
foreign governments, but because he did not want to face 
the possibility of not being selected. He, however, recog- 
nized the Conference because he pleaded before it his right 
to be recognized as the head of the de facto government, 



386 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

in virtue of the fact that he had dominated the situation 
from a military standpoint. 

The Evening Post, in its issue of August 7, 1915, said 
with regard to the work of the Conference of Latin-Ameri- 
can representatives gathered together by the Yankee Sec- 
retary of State to settle the affairs of Mexico: "It seems 
that not one of the Latin-American diplomatists has opposed 
this part of the plan (the recognition of Manuel Vazquez 
Tagle, ex-Minister of Justice in Madero's Cabinet, for 
President of Mexico), even if some of the ambassadors think 
that a representative of the Cientifico group should be chosen 
for the post. They, however, were informed, so it is said, 
that President Wilson is opposed to the return to power of 
the Cientifico or conservative interests which were identified 
with Porfirio Diaz." 

President Wilson's determination not to consent to the 
return to power of the Cientifico or conservative elements 
which were identified with the Diaz regime, was hailed by 
the Constitutionalists as another master stroke of Mexico's 
benefactor. It is evident, then, that it did not appear neces- 
sary at that time to the followers of Constitutionalism for 
the Mexicans to shed the last drop of their blood, or even 
an infinitesimal part, when the President of the United States 
was grinding Mexican sovereignty to dust with the heel 
of his boot. It must be remembered that notwithstanding 
the fact that General Funston had received orders to fire 
against the Mexican combatant who should, intentionally or 
unintentionally, fire shells into American territory, he failed 
to do so although the Carrancista general, Calles, continued 
to send projectiles across the boundary line, with the in- 
tention, no doubt, of egging on the American commanders 
to fire upon Villa. Notwithstanding the official report made 
by the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces at 
Douglas concerning the firing, General Calles was not prose- 
cuted as a traitor to his country, not even reprimanded. On 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 387 

the contrary, his conduct was fullj^ approved and he was 
congratulated by Carranza. 

In view of the facts presented, President Wilson had 
reason to believe that the punitive expedition against Villa 
could be made to fit within the limits of the elastic patriot- 
ism that had looked with favor upon the punitive expedition 
sent against Huerta in 19 14. 

A HEROIC STRUGGLE TO AVOID A STRUGGLE 

On March 10, 191 6, Seiior Carranza received the note 
sent by the United States Government, in which President 
Wilson announced that in order to punish the attack on 
Columbus, the United States Government was resolved to 
pursue Villa and his bandit followers into Mexican territory 
and to exterminate them. If Carranza had acted with the 
patriotism exacted by Mexican law, and in compliance with 
public sentiment, he should have protested against the im- 
mediate invasion of Mexico, called the American Govern- 
ment's attention to the existing extradition treaty, and in- 
timated that if this were violated diplomatic relations be- 
tween Mexico and the United States would be severed until 
such time as the will of the Mexican people could be as- 
certained. 

Carranza wished to avoid war, and taking into considera- 
tion the emphatic and somewhat heated statements constantly 
reiterated by the American press to the effect that the puni- 
tive expedition would penetrate into Mexico to put an end 
to Villa whether Carranza wished it or not, he decided to 
accept the humiliating situation, and covered his shameful 1 
condescension by proposing a reciprocal treaty with the 
United States, which was to permit Mexican troops to cross 
the frontier into American territory in pursuit of those 
bandits, a similar privilege to cross the frontier into Mexico 
to be accorded to the American troops if the Columbus at- 



388 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

tack should unfortunately be repeated , at any other point 
along the frontier. 

The diplomatic heads of the Mexican Chancery Office 
must have been preoccupied, as there was no element of rec- 
iprocity in the petition of the new treaty, as the Mexican 
troops were to have permission to pursue Villa into Ameri- 
can territory where he was not; and in exchange the Ameri- 
can forces could only penetrate into Mexico in case an at- 
tack similar to that of Columbus were repeated at any other 
point along the frontier. 

In order to show that he did not want war and that he 
did not wish to embarrass Carranza, President Wilson said 
to him in his telegram of March 13th: "... in order to 
assure peace between the two republics and to preserve order 
in the territory adjaceat'to the border, permission is granted 
with pleasure for the armed forces of the de facto Mexican 
Government to cross the international boundary line in pur- 
suit of bands of armed men who may have invaded Mexico 
from the United States, committed depredations on Mexican 
territory and then escaped to the United States, with the 
understanding that the same privilege be granted to the 
United States military forces to pursue across the inter- 
national boundary line and into Mexican territory bands of 
armed men who, coming from Mexico, may have penetrated 
into American territory, committed depredations on Ameri- 
can soil and then escaped into Mexico. The United States 
Government understands that in view of its acceptance 
of this reciprocal arrangement, proposed by the de facto 
Government, said arrangement is considered complete and 
in force, and the reciprocal privileges to which it refers can 
consequently be exercised by either one of the Governments 
without the necessity of entering into any new arrangement." 

This treaty of reciprocity entered into without any of the 
formalities exacted by international law was designed to 
cover the humiliation which a weak nation like Mexico re- 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 389 

ceived through the punitive expedition which, as I have 
already said, was an act of reprisal employed by the United 
States to enable it to avoid obliging Mexico to accept the 
alternative of war. This reciprocal treaty possessed the de- 
fect that for the United States the rights were effective and 
the obligations hypothetical, whereas, for the de facto 
Government the rights were hypothetical and the obligations 
effective. « 

Senor Carranza proved himself weak in consenting to the 
cooperation of the Mexican military forces in the punitive 
expedition. The note of March 14th, addressed by the 
White House to Carranza, says: "It is a source of sincere 
satisfaction to the United States Government that the de 
facto Mexican Government has manifested such a cordial 
and friendly spirit of cooperation in the efforts of the United 
States authorities to apprehend and punish the band of ma- 
rauders. ..." Jai vv*'V^'^-- 

Senor Jacinto Lopez, the distinguished Central American 
writer, in a study relative to the situation which he pub- 
lished in a Cuban newspaper devoted to social sciences, says: 
"There was, then, a perfect understanding between the two 
governments just previous to the opening of the American 
campaign in Mexican territory against Villa. . . . The 
United States forces, then, were in Mexico with the sanction 
of the Mexican Government." Senor Lopez does not 
breathe the vitiated atmosphere inhaled as a general thing by 
all Mexicans at present, and I quote his words to establish 
a fact which no one can deny, that Don Venustiano Carranza 
openly accepted the punitive expedition, with the accompany- 
ing aggravating circumstance of having consented to the 
Constitutionalist army acting as the guide, friend, ally, 
and, as an El Paso newspaper said, procurer for the Amer- 
ican army in the violation of the fatherland. 

Senor Lopez does not handle Senor Carranza quite, so 
roughly in judging his action concerning the proposition 



390 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

made by the de facto Government to the White House with 
regard to the treaty of reciprocity, as he says: "It is easy 
to understand the object of this proposition, which is nothing 
more than a resort, an expedient — undoubtedly the last 
available one — by which the situation can be met with some 
semblance of decorum, and to soften as much as possible the 
resentment of national pride," 



INDECOROUS PROCEEDINGS 

Senor Carranza quite justly estimated that the advent of 
the punitive expedition would naturally arouse a sentiment 
of indignation in the public mind that would be dangerous 
to the existence of the de facto Government. To obviate 
this catastrophe the Carrancista press announced, for the 
benefit of the Mexican public, that a treaty, drawn up and 
signed at Washington in 1882, existed between the Ameri- 
can and Mexican Governments which authorized Carranza 
to receive the punitive expedition with open arms. 

This treaty referred to the pursuit of parties of savages, 
that is, Indians, and Villa, however much of a savage 
he may be in a figurative sense, cannot juridically be 
classed in this category. Admitting, however, for the sake 
of argument, that a treaty applicable to Indian raids 
could be made to cover an attack such as that made upon 
Columbus, this treaty had been extinct for twenty years. 
Senor Federico Gamboa, Mexican ex-Minister to Guate- 
mala and Belgium and Secretary of Foreign Relations in 
Huerta's Cabinet, writes the following with regard to this 
subject in La Reforma Social: ". . . it is to be borne in 
mind that Article VIII of that agreement (that of 1882), 
entered into for a period of two years, was modified on 
September 21st, of the same 3-ear (1882), and renewed on 
two other occasions, June 28, 1882, and October 16, 1885. 
iThe first treaty was replaced by that of June 25, 1890, which 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 391 

was renewed on November 25, 1892, and finally replaced 
by the agreement of June 4, 1896. This was provisional 
and valid only until such time as the band headed by the 
Apache Kid was exterminated, always with the proviso that 
the pursuit should not extend over a period longer than one 
year." It follows, then, that the de facto Government au- 
thorized the punitive expedition in virtue of a treaty which 
was in no sense applicable to the case, and which possessed 
the additional disadvantage of having been extinct for 
twenty jears, and that Senor Carranza attempted with this 
subterfuge to fool the nation. 

Fearing that the Mexican public might become aware of 
the trick played upon it, the Carrancista politicians resolved, 
in order to put an end to the punitive expedition, to have 
recourse to another ruse — produce Villa's corpse. This 
may have been any corpse, or it may have been the body of 
a man resembling Villa, converted into a corpse to fill the re- 
quirements of the occasion. When the authorized representa- 
tives of Carrancism gave out in Mexico, in El Paso and 
in Washington that the body of Villa had been found, the 
skepticism evinced on all sides was so great that the "manu- 
facturers of opportune corpses" were rather taken aback, 
and resolved to abandon their fraudulent scheme. The best 
proof that this was the invention of clever politicians is the 
fact that the de facto Government did not attempt to sus- 
tain the contention that the body of Villa had been found, 
as it naturally would have done if its claim could have 
been substantiated, as it would have solved the difficulty 
immediately and saved the situation. 

All these facts prove the determination of the de facto 
Government to keep out of war at any cost. It may be by 
drawing up reciprocal treaties; by ingratiating itself with 
President Wilson; by permitting the Carrancista troops to 
cooperate in the punitive expedition; by giving the impres- 
sion that a treaty covering the pursuit of Indian raiders 



392 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

existed, thus identifying Villa with an Apache Indian; by 
opportunely manufacturing a corpse, said to be the body of 
the ex-military genius of the revolution; by sending notes 
to Washington similar to that of April 12th, which closed 
with a mild, supplicatory clause in which President Wilson 
is told that the time has come to negotiate for the retire- 
ment of the American forces; by dispatching a so-called 
forcible note which instead of concluding with an ultimatum 
closes by informing Washington that it is merely a continua- 
tion of the controversy between the two governments. 

President Wilson on his side has made superhuman efforts 
to avoid a rupture with the de facto Government, and only 
the pressure brought to bear upon him by the press and the 
influential politicians who voice the sentiments of the ma- 
jority of the American people, who disapprove of his policy, 
has had the power to bring him to the point of unsheathing 
his sword and challenging his former proteges, the Mex- 
ican revolutionists. 

A DISPASSIONATE JUDGMENT OF THE CASE 

What in reality is the' cause of the threatened war be- 
tween Mexico and the United States on this 15th day of 
June, 1916? The punitive expedition? It is clear to the 
world that Senor Carranza takes this view. In the so-called 
forcible notes sent by the de facto Mexican Government 
reference is made only to the affront offered to the nation 
by the continued presence of the American forces in Mex- 
ican territory, since the Mexican Government is in a posi- 
tion to give the United States sufficient guarantees that its 
boundaries shall not again be violated by Mexican bandits. 

It is true that Carranza is in a position actually to give 
these guarantees? Evidently not. Between May 5 and 
June 21, 191 6, Glen Springs, Big Bent, Coleman's Ranch, 
the San Ignacio, San Benito (Texas) and Mercedes camps 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 393 

have been raided by bandits from across the border. The 
world has seen that neither the American nor the Car- 
rancista forces are able to prevent the accomplishment of 
Villa's purpose, the annihilation of Carranza by Wilson, 
brought about by means of repeated attacks which will in- 
flame the American public to the point of forcing Wilson 
to defend the rights and honor of the United States. 

On the other hand, it is absurd to expect the United 
States to sacrifice its indisputable, sacred and inalienable 
right to protect its border upon the altar of Villista brigand- 
age, in order to respect Mexican sovereignty in a case in 
which international law gives them the right not to respect 
it. According to international law, whatever may be Car- 
ranza's reasons for not living up to his international obliga- 
tions, the United States has the right to declare war against 
Mexico or to have recourse to an act of reprisal in order to 
force the de facto Government to give complete satisfaction 
to the outraged American public. 

According to international law, Mexico has the indis- 
putable right on her own account to reply to war with war, 
and not to tolerate an act of reprisal such as the sending of 
the punitive expedition. There is, then, a conflict of rights 
between the two nations, not a clash between Mexican right 
and the insolent and intolerable brutality of the United 
States. 

MEDIATION 

In a conflict where equal rights are at stake mediation 
should be resorted to as the logical and patriotic means of 
avoiding a devastating war. Unfortunately mediation is 
not possible. Villism exists and will continue to exist for 
some time to come. It represents, once its few intellectual 
and orderly elements have been nullified or separated from 
it, the victorious brigandage which, protected by the Presi- 



394 WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT MEXICO 

dent of the United States, was the force that actually over- 
threw Huerta. VilHsm was the real vivifying principle of 
the revolution of 1913. Carrancism has been the outcome of 
a social and political reaction among the more intelligent 
bandits who, at last, understood that it was not possible in 
1916, in the midst of civilization, to govern according to pre- 
historic methods which were viewed with horror and dis- 
gust by civilized nations. 

The trouble between Mexico and the United States is not 
one of the moment only ; it will be continual as its origin 
lies in the hatred of the Villistas for the Carrancistas, and 
so long as the former are in the field and Carranza cannot 
maintain at least one hundred and fifty thousand well dis- 
ciplined soldiers in the north to protect the border and grad- 
ually exterminate the Villistas, the anti-Carrancista faction 
will continue to slap the colossus of the north in the face, 
subject him to the ridicule of the world, until it forces him 
to declare war or completely to sacrifice his honor. 

The "mediators" should not treat with Wilson and Car- 
ranza, but with Villa and Carranza in an attempt to bring 
about a reconciliation between them. However, as there is 
no discipline in the Villista bands, any northern bandit with 
anti-Carrancista tendencies could repeat the Columbus inci- 
dent on his own account any time it occurs to him. The 
punitive expedition had for its present and future object the 
prevention of future raids into American territory. What 
can the mediators do to guarantee to the United States that 
there will be no further incursions into her territory? In 
my estimation nothing, absolutely nothing. 

AN UNEXPECTED SOLUTION 

The unexpected turn that affairs have taken and the prob- 
able solution of the situation since the last pages of this book 
were written (July 16, 1916), and as it goes to press, 



ARMED INTERVENTION BEGINS 395 

have been a surprise to me. According to international law 
and common sense war between Mexico and the United 
States began on June 21st with the Carrizal fight, which 
resulted adversely for the Americans. The failure of the 
mobilization of the militia obliged President Wilson to seek 
peace from Carranza, which he did through his speech at the 
Press Club banquet. Carranza hastened to accede to the re- 
quest, and it appears that the peace negotiations are under 
way and that the discussion will be long dvRwn out. There 
can be no doubt that Mexico's triumph has been unqualified 
as the punitive expedition has retired from Mexican territory 
owing to the pressure brought to bear by Constitutionalist 
arms. 

The solution of the "Mexican question" by means of 
armed intervention has been rejected, and the attitude of the 
American people indicates that they are resolved that under 
no circumstances whatsoever shall the Mexican difficulty be 
settled by recourse to armed intervention. Unfortunately, 
President Wilson, instead of laying aside the idea of con- 
trolling the Mexican Government, appears to be more de- 
termined than ever, supported by the military power of the 
United States, to impose his will upon the Mexican people 
through means which he believes will be efficacious, but 
which are absurd to those who know the sociology of the 
Mexican people. 



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